Leading Cause of Death Among Women

Heart disease is the leading cause of death among women, yet nearly half of women would not call 911 if they thought they were having symptoms of a heart attack.
That is just one of several concerning results revealed today by The Go Red for Women Study, funded by the American Heart Association. The program looked at women's heart-health awareness and trends since 1997.
Researchers at New York-Presbyterian Hospital surveyed 2,300 women twenty five or older by phone and online to find out who knew that heart disease was the number one killer of women, and what they would do if they might be having a heart attack.
Women's alertness of heart disease has greatly increased over the last ten years, but it's still relatively low. Furthermore, the level of knowledge has oscillated between different racial groups. The recent survey shows that minority women continue to be significantly less aware of their risk of heart disease than white women.
Survey reveled that women who correctly recognized heart disease as the leading cause of death among women were:
White women: 60%, Back women: 43%, Hispanic women: 44% and Asian women: 34%
Less than half of women ages twenty five to thirty four, regardless of ethnicity, did not know that heart disease is the number one killer of women.
The study also revealed that a women's knowledge of heart attack symptoms has not improved over the years, a finding that deserves immediate attention, researchers say.
Only 56% of women knew chest, neck, shoulder, and arm pain could be a heart attack symptom.
Only 29% of women knew shortness of breath was a symptom.
17% correctly said chest tightness could be a symptom of a heart attack, while 15% knew nausea was a warning sign.
Fatigue can also be a warning sign of a heart attack in women, yet only 7% of those surveyed were conscious of this symptom.
Most of the women surveyed were also unaware of evidence-based therapies for preventing cardiovascular disease. "Despite recent research showing no benefit of antioxidant vitamins in women, the greater part of women surveyed cited them as a way to prevent heart disease.
Lori Mosca, MD, PhD, MPH, director of preventive cardiology at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City, says in a news release. Slightly less than a third of women thought aromatherapy could also help avoid heart disease, but this is not a proven approach.
Those surveyed said that better access to healthy foods and public recreation facilities as well as listing nutritional information in restaurants would make it easier for them to follow healthier lifestyles. Right now, the most common reason they did not do so was that they were busy taking care of a loved one. The second most common reason cited for failing to follow a heart-healthy lifestyle was uncertainty about how to go on, which stemmed from confusing media reports.
The results underscore the importance of heart disease awareness among women and their families. Educational campaigns can help prevent death and disability from cardiovascular disease, the researchers say.
"It is particularly important that national campaigns cut through the diverse messages women receive and deliver the facts about how they can avoid heart disease," says Mosca.
The American Heart Association recently announced its strategic goal for 2020: enhance the cardiovascular health of Americans by 20% and reduce heart disease-related and stroke-related deaths by the same amount.
The research shows that these goals will be virtually impossible to achieve without first creating awareness among multicultural and younger women, educating them about the warning signs of heart attack.