(08-25) 22:31 PDT DALLAS (AP) --

Black women are twice as likely as white women to suffer heart disease, yet are less likely to be given certain standard drugs, a study found.

The findings, published Monday in the American Heart Association journal Circulation, show that black women also are twice as likely suffer heart attacks and deaths from heart disease. The gap is partly because black women have more severe heart disease and risk factors such as high cholesterol and high blood pressure, the study said.

The study was less clear about why black women receive less care for the disease.

…Black women were 10 percent less likely to get aspirin and 27 percent less likely to get cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins. Black women, however, got more higher-priced drugs, such ACE inhibitors and calcium channel blockers.