Poll Finds Majority Of Women Unaware Heart Disease Is Their No. 1 Killer.

2001 JUN 7 - (NewsRx Network) -- More women in the U.S. today are aware that heart disease is their major killer than three years ago, however the number is still low - 34%, according to findings from an American Heart Association survey announced May 15, 2001.

The survey of 1,004 women updates results from a 1997 poll about how women perceive their health risks, how much they worry about them, and where and how they are receiving information about heart disease and stroke.

"In 1997, 30% of women viewed heart disease as the leading killer compared to 34% today. We are making some progress in increasing women's awareness of heart disease, but there are still important issues to address," says American Heart Association president Rose Marie Robertson, MD, medical director of the Vanderbilt Women's Heart Institute, Nashville, Tennessee, who wrote an editorial about the survey in the May 15, 2001, issue of Circulation.

Fewer than one in 10 women perceive heart disease as their greatest health problem. In 1997, 7% of women cited heart disease as the major health threat for women, compared to 8% today. In addition, 62% of the women believe cancer is their leading health problem compared to 61% three years earlier. In reality, cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the number 1 killer of U.S. men and women, claiming 503,927 women, while cancer killed 259,467 women in 1998.

The American Heart Association survey was conducted by Harris Interactive to monitor the progress of the association's Women's Campaign, initiated in 1997, and designed to inform women about how to reduce their risk of dying from CVD.

In the Circulation editorial titled, "Women and cardiovascular disease: The Risks of misperception and the need for action," Robertson notes that women often hear messages about heart disease and stroke, but they are not hearing them frequently enough in the right context, for example, from their doctors.

"People don't believe heart disease can really affect them and they view it as a disease that happens later in life, which undermines the vital efforts in prevention. Heart disease is a 'now' problem - 'later' may be too late. Women are getting the message about breast cancer, the need for regular checkups, mammograms, and self-exams; that's a great success story that needs to be translated to cardiovascular disease awareness," she says.