The claim that “young women do not suffer from heart disease” points to the dangers of “knowledge mediated bias” by Dr Katalina hamberg, of the university of moo in Sweden. Although people realized that the average height of men or women, or a lower risk of certain diseases in one respect is important and useful, but this kind of consciousness may lead to disease as a “man presented” or “women’s disease,” the doctor to the individual knowledge in front of them – to the stereotypes in fact become self-fulfilling: in one gender, know the situation more common under another gender often lead to diagnosis.
The history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) illustrates this point. COPD, the fourth leading cause of death in the United States, is closely related to smoking. So, for decades, typical COPD patients were typical smokers: older whites. But starting in the 1960s, as tobacco companies began targeting women, the gender gap in smoking rates began to narrow – and the gap between chronic obstructive pulmonary disease quickly followed. From 1980 to 2000, the death rate for COPD women tripled. More women have died of copd each year since 2000. In a 2001 study, researchers suggested that women’s COPD was poorly diagnosed because of entrenched stereotypes associated with the disease. They asked 192 primary care physicians to consider the case of a middle-aged patient with a history of chronic cough and smoking, both male and female. For the first time, 49% of women were diagnosed with COPD, compared with 64.6% of the same men. Once the test results for copd were provided, the gender gap narrowed but did not completely disappear.
, as the researchers point out, one would think that research shows that the bias is not entirely inappropriate, because “considering the high male history of tobacco consumption, men’s risk of COPD than women.” But they point out that this is a circular argument: the accuracy of epidemiological data tells us that the incidence of common diseases in different groups depends on the doctor making accurate diagnoses. If COPD is underdiagnosed in women – as the study shows – how do people know if it is actually more common in men? Even though this is common among men, it has nothing to do with whether individual women have it. However, male patients with “typical” image is very strong, so that doctors ignored the women smokers in the study of COPD, although men of the high incidence of COPD first appeared in the history of the only reason is that higher rates of smoking. Today, despite the fact that COPD is officially higher than men for most of their lifetime, women still face delays in diagnosis.
“Knowledge mediated” biases do affect both sexes. Studies have shown that men are diagnosed with some of the more common diseases in women, including depression, migraines, fibromyalgia and breast cancer. However, this bias seems particularly difficult for women. After all, when diagnosis against statistical forecast, willing to listen to individual patients’ symptoms – even when she report symptoms seems unlikely, believe that she is a reporter on the reliable, more important to make a correct diagnosis. “Many men suffering from other diseases to finalize the design for” male disease “, such as autism and attention deficit disorder, the report says the doctor to the possibility of absolute conflict – even though women themselves a correct diagnosis.
When she described her cluster headache, she needed six doctor visits and 18 months to listen. The cluster headache is nicknamed “suicide headache” given one of the single most painful medical conditions. When Mae’s attack began, her husband, a medical student who had just learned of a headache disorder, suggested that she keep a spreadsheet to tell them when and how she had symptoms. The extent and pattern of pain suggests that they may be cluster headaches, as the name suggests, each time in a couple of weeks or months. One side of Mae also has chickenpox and drooping eyelids, which is a typical disease; She has never had the aura of a migraine.
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