The incidence of heart attacks is decreasing, but the trend seems to have slowed in women, according to a study recently published in Circulation.

Matthew T. Mefford, Ph.D., from Kaiser Permanente Southern California in Pasadena, and colleagues analyzed acute myocardial infarction (AMI) incidence rates among patients 35 years and older in Kaiser Permanente Southern California from 2000 to 2014. The authors tracked average annual percent changes (AAPCs) and period percent changes and determined age- and sex-standardized incidence rates by adjusting to population data from the 2010 U.S. Census.

The researchers identified 45,331 hospitalizations for AMI from 2000 to 2014. During this time, standardized AMI incidence rates decreased by 4.4 percent. Among women, from 2000 to 2009, the AMI AAPC was −4.6 percent, and from 2010 to 2014, the AMI AAPC was −2.3 percent. The AMI AAPC was stable for men across the study period at −4.7 percent.

"The study points to the need for continued improvement in the awareness, prevention, recognition, and treatment of risk factors for heart disease in women," a coauthor said in a statement. "It also shows that more research needs to be done to understand the disparities between men and women."