AHA 2015: Women need more awareness of cardiovascular disease risks

by Bruce Sylvester: While heart disease and stroke are the greatest killers of women in the U.S., most women there claim to have no personal connection to cardiovascular disease, researchers reported on Nov. 8, 2015 at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2015.

“Since women who report knowing another woman with heart disease are more apt to express concern and importantly — bring up this issue with their doctor — awareness of heart disease is crucial,” said lead investigator C. Noel Bairey Merz, M.D., director of the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center and professor of medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California.

As background, the authors noted that one-third of the women who die in the US each year die from heart disease and stroke. And even though heart disease and stroke death rates among men have fallen over the last 25 years, women’s rates have fallen at a much lower rate.

The investigators from the Women’s Heart Alliance undertook a nationally representative survey of 1,011 adult women. They adjusted the findings for age, region, race, ethnicity, education and income.

They found that only 27 percent of the subjects could identify a woman in their lives with heart disease and only 11 percent could identify a woman in their lives who has died from heart disease.

For women 25 to 49 years-old, about 23 percent reported knowing a woman with heart disease, compared to 37 percent in the 50 to 60 years-old group.

Notably, the investigators found that compared to men, healthcare providers often focused on a woman’s weight rather than cholesterol or blood pressure.

“We are stalled on women’s awareness of heart disease, partly because women say they put off going to the doctor until they’ve lost a few pounds. This is clearly a gendered issue,” Bairey Merz said.

“Women should be screened for heart disease, including finding out their atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) score — also called the “A-risk score,” Bairey Merz said. “This figure uses your age, sex, race, blood pressure, cholesterol levels, blood pressure medication use, diabetes status and smoking status to get a 10-year cardiovascular disease risk and a lifetime risk score. Talk to your doctor about heart disease. Every woman 40 and older needs to get their A-risk score. If you’re under 40 you still need to know your blood pressure and cholesterol.”