80 is not the new 70: Age may bias heart care, study finds

People are more likely to buy things when prices end in 99 cents rather than rounded up to the next dollar. A U.S. study out Wednesday suggests that something similar might be happening with age perception and heart surgery. Researchers using Medicare records found that heart attack patients who turned 80 within the previous two weeks were less likely to get bypass surgery than those who were two weeks shy of that birthday, even though the true age difference is less than a month. Doctors say it’s important to use objective measures to evaluate a patient’s risk to avoid bias.