The CWHHA ATLAS
A living document on the current state of heart disease in women in Canada.Français
The goal of the ATLAS is to help clinicians recognize the unique aspects of women’s heart health care and provide policy-makers with the information they need to ensure equitable care for women with cardiovascular disease.
The Canadian Women’s Heart Health Alliance (CWHHA) ATLAS is a collection of chapters published in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology Open, accompanied by detailed infographics, that report on the current state of cardiovascular disease in women.
The ATLAS uses an expansive and ongoing collection of research articles assembled for the scientific statement published by the Journal of the American Heart Association (JAHA), State of the Science in Women's Cardiovascular Disease: A Canadian Perspective on the Influence of Sex and Gender, authored by members of the CWHHA.
ATLAS Chapters
Chapter 1
Introduction to the ATLAS
This chapter provides a critical appraisal of the currently inadequate evidence base to support female-specific clinical guidelines and recommendations for cardiovascular disease in Canada.
Chapter 2
Scope of the Problem
This chapter summarizes the current state of cardiovascular disease mortality, healthcare utilization, risk factors, and other important health determinants for women in Canada.
Chapter 3
Patient Perspectives
This chapter provides a review of existing knowledge and identifies gaps regarding experiencing and living with cardiovascular disease from the perspective of women with lived experience.
Chapter 4
Sex- and Gender-Unique Disparities: Cardiovascular Disease Across the Lifespan
This chapter reviews disparities in cardiovascular disease risk through the lens of sex and gender, and reducing knowledge gaps, and developing optimal strategies for awareness and treatment.
Chapter 5
Sex- and Gender-Unique Manifestations of Cardiovascular Disease
This chapter reviews sex- and some gender-unique manifestations of cardiovascular disease, including symptom presentation, pathophysiology, and outcomes, from clinical trial data, when available, and observational reports.
Chapter 6
Sex- and Gender-Specific Cardiovascular Diagnosis and Treatment
This chapter summarizes the sex- and gender-specific diagnosis and treatment of acute/unstable presentations and non-acute/stable presentations of cardiovascular disease in women.
Chapter 7
Sex, Gender, and the Social Determinants of Health
This chapter reviews the intersectional nature and relationship of sociocultural determinants of health including sex and gender factors that influence awareness, access to care, and health outcomes for women with cardiovascular disease and summarizes current clinical practice guidelines unique to women to identify gaps in need of advancement and action.
Chapter 8
Knowledge Gaps and Status of Existing Research Programs in Canada
This chapter summarizes the existing education and research on cardiovascular disease in Canadian women, knowledge gaps to guide future research; and recommends prioritizing women's heart health in research, leading to systemic changes in education and public health policies.
Chapter 9
Next Steps / Recommendations, Challenges and Opportunities and Conclusions
This chapter discusses future directions and the actions needed to achieve sex- and gender- equity for women’s cardiovascular health to correct the glaring “unders” of CVD for women in Canada: under-awareness, under-diagnosis, under-treatment, under-researched, and under-supported.
