Gender Differences in Clinical Practice Regarding Coronary Heart Disease: A Systematic Review

Background/Objectives: A systematic review was performed with the aim of analysing potential sex differences in the overall treatment of coronary heart disease (CHD). Methods: Studies published between January 2011 and November 2023 that conducted a sex-based analysis of the provision of any type of therapeutic measure to treat CHD were included. A search was performed of the Web of Science database in November 2023, resulting in 9070 articles. Study quality was examined using the Newcastle-Ottawa scale. A worksheet was produced to extract data pertaining to the title, year of publication, sample, context, study design, dependent variables, time-frame, treatment type, and outcomes reported by each article. This systematic review followed PRISMA guidelines, and the research protocol was submitted to PROSPERO (CRD42022330238). Results: A total of 80 articles presenting data representing 560.070,624 individual datapoints were selected to comprise the final sample. The main findings revealed that the majority of studies highlighted inequalities that disadvantaged females in all analysed treatment categories (pharmacological treatment, invasive interventions, rehabilitation programmes, and other treatment types). Conclusions: Despite the abundance of evidence on the need to improve healthcare provision to females with CHD, few studies examined the reasons or mechanisms underlying the inequalities identified.