Women and heart attacks: What you need to know

A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds women are more likely to have a heart attack without chest pain, so they're less likely to get immediate treatment.

They're also more likely to die in the hospital, and especially younger women.

Study: Heart attacks harder to detect in women

With all that in mind, Dr. Lori Mosca, director of Preventive Cardiology at New York Presbyterian - Columbia Medical Center, said women need to be aware that the symptoms of a heart attack may be different than what they might expect.

"It's not the classic Hollywood heart attack (of holding your chest in a dramatic way for women)," she said on "CBS This Morning." "The less common symptoms occur more frequently in women than they do men."

The study showed about 42 percent of women, when they had a heart attack, presented with non-chest pain symptoms -- among men, it was only 30 percent.

"We don't actually know why women present with more unusual symptoms," Mosca said.

Symptoms of a heart attack in women may include lightheadedness, shortness of breath, pain in the upper body that can radiate to the neck, back and arms, indigestion and stomach upset, breaking out into a sweat, and an overwhelming fatigue.

When women are aware of these symptoms, Mosca said, they will more likely seek treatment.

Mosca said, "This study was actually important because it linked not knowing what those symptoms were to having worse outcome."