Understanding stroke in women – from causes to consequences

Dr Seana Gall

Women suffer a higher burden of stroke compared to men. This is reflected at the population-level with a higher absolute number of stroke events and deaths from stroke in women compared to men. It is also reflected at the patient-level with lower levels of survival, worse functional recovery and worse health-related quality of life after stroke in women than men. In a program of research spanning more than 10 years, Associate Professor Seana Gall has been seeking to understand why women have worse outcomes after stroke compared to men. To do this, she has compiled one of the world’s largest databases of cases of stroke from 14 studies around the world. In this presentation, she will provide up-to-date analysis of the differences in stroke between men and women, including work by her team providing much needed clues as to why women fare worse than men after stroke. Using her research findings, she will present potential solutions to reduce the differences in outcome between men and women after stroke to achieve the ultimate goal of reducing the burden of this disease.


Biography:

A/Prof Seana Gall is a senior research fellow in cardiovascular epidemiology at the Menzies Institute for Medical Research at the University of Tasmania and Adjunct Associate Professor at Monash University. She holds a BSc (Hons) in physiology from Monash University and graduated with a PhD in stroke epidemiology from the University of Melbourne in 2008. She conducts epidemiological studies to understand ways to prevent, manage and improve outcomes of cardiovascular disease, particularly stroke. She has published 83 journal articles and has attracted over $6 million in funding for her research including current funding as a National Heart Foundation of Australia Future Leader Fellow. She is an active member of the scientific community including as chair of the Tasmanian Government’s Tobacco Control Coalition, a board director for the Cancer Council Tasmania and chair of the Stroke Foundation’s Health Promotion advisory committee.