Half Of Women Would Not Call 911 If Having Heart Attack, Many Unaware Of Symptoms

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Main Category: Heart Disease
Also Included In: Cardiovascular / Cardiology;  Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 11 Feb 2010 - 2:00 PST

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A new US study found women's knowledge of the warning signs of heart attack is as poor as it was a decade ago, with half saying they would not call 9-1-1 if they were having heart attack symptoms; they also found that although getting narrower, there are still racial gaps in women's awareness of heart disease, with white women still more aware than other races.

You can read about the study, by lead author Lori Mosca, Director of Preventive Cardiology at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City, and colleagues, in an online before print 10 February issue of Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, a journal of the American Heart Association.

For the study, Mosca and colleagues surveyed 2,300 women aged 25 and older (about half on the phone and half online) living in the US in 2009 and measured their current awareness of cardiovascular disease risk and barriers to prevention. They used a cross-sectional sample with an oversampling of racial and ethnic minorities.

They compared the results of the telephone survey to those of previous awareness surveys and evaluated trends since 1997, and in the online survey they asked the respondents some extra questions about caregiving, prevention, and barriers to healthy behaviors so that comparisons can be made with future survey responses.

The authors also noted that the results may represent a "best case scenario" because respondents were fairly well-educated.

The results showed that:

• 54 percent of the women surveyed by phone understood that heart disease is the leading cause of death among women, compared with 30 percent in 1997.


• Since 1997, the gap between white women and minority women's awareness of heart disease as the leading cause of death has narrowed, with awareness roughly doubling among white and Hispanic and tripling among black women.


• 60 per cent of American white women were aware of heart disease as the leading cause of death for women.


• This compared to only 43 per cent for African-American, 44 per cent for Hispanic, and 34 per cent for Asian women.


• Awareness of heart attack warning signs has not changed significantly since 1997.


• Only 56 per cent of women cited chest pain and neck, shoulder and arm pain, 29 per cent shortness of breath, 17 per cent chest tightness, 15 per cent nausea, and 7 per cent fatigue, as warning signs of heart attack.


• Only 53 per cent of all women said they would call 9-1-1 if they were having symptoms of a heart attack.


• Half of women aged 35 to 34 did not know that heart disease was the number 1 killer of women.


• Most women did not know about evidence-based therapies for preventing cardiovascular disease and listed non-evidence based therapies as preventers of cardiovascular disease.


• 69 per cent cited use of multivitamins, 70 per cent cited antioxidants, 58 per cent special vitamins, and 29 per cent cited aromatherapy as preventive strategies for cardiovascular disease.


• Among online respondents, the most commonly cited barrier that stopped them taking preventive action was looking after the family (51 per cent), with confusing media messages (42 per cent) as the second most commonly cited barrier.


• Online respondents suggested the following community actions would be the most helpful in encouraging healthier lifestyles: access to healthy food (91 per cent), public recreation facilities (80 per cent), listing nutritional information in restaurants (79 per cent).

The authors concluded that:

"Awareness of CVD [cardivascular disease] as the leading cause of death among women has nearly doubled since 1997 but is stabilizing and continues to lag in racial/ethnic minorities."

"Numerous misperceptions and barriers to prevention persist and women strongly favored environmental approaches to facilitate preventive action," they added.

Mosca told the press that the American Heart Association (AHA) has announced its 2020 strategic goal is to:

"Improve the cardiovascular health of all Americans by 20 per cent while reducing deaths from cardiovascular diseases and stroke by 20 per cent."

"Our study shows that these goals will be virtually impossible to achieve without first creating awareness among multicultural and younger women, educating women about the warning signs of heart attack and underscoring the importance of calling 9-1-1 immediately if they are experiencing heart attack symptoms," she said.

Mosca, who is also a spokesperson for Go Red For Women, a campaign sponsored by Macy's and Merck to increase awareness of heart disease among women in the US, said it was particularly important that national campaigns:

"Cut through the mixed messages women receive and deliver the facts about how they can prevent heart disease."

"Despite recent research showing no benefit of antioxidant vitamins in women, the majority of women surveyed cited them as a way to prevent heart disease," she added.

. "Twelve-Year Follow-Up of American Women's Awareness of Cardiovascular Disease Risk and Barriers to Heart Health."
Lori Mosca, Heidi Mochari-Greenberger, Rowena J. Dolor, L. Kristin Newby, and Karen J. Robb
Circ Cardiovasc Qual Outcomes, published online before print 10 February 2010.
DOI:10.1161/CIRCOUTCOMES.109.915538

Related article:

Life's Simple 7 Measures For Healthy Heart

Source: AHA.

Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD
Copyright: Medical News Today
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