Heart disease is the leading cause of death in women, but it’s largely preventable if a woman knows she’s at risk and starts taking action in time to avert a heart attack or stroke.
The problem is that traditional risk calculators may be missing the full picture when it comes to female bodies and heart disease, especially in women from diverse backgrounds.
One survey of doctors found only 22% of primary care physicians and 42% of cardiologists felt “well prepared” to gauge the risk of heart disease in women.
So a wider variety of factors needs to be considered, doctors and nurses write in a new scientific statement from the American Heart Association, published in the journal Circulation this week.
They urge including female-specific risk factors — such as pregnancy complications and types of birth control used; differences by race and ethnicity; and non-biological factors, such as where a patient lives and what schedule she works — when assessing a woman’s risk.
Sex and gender aspects of heart disease have been a focus since the early 2000s when doctors noticed more women were dying than men, says Dr. Jennifer Mieres, a statement co-author and a professor of cardiology at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra Northwell in Hempstead, New York.
“This focused research on women’s cardiovascular health had led to the decline in deaths for women over the past five to six years. But as we hit the COVID pandemic, we noticed that we were losing momentum,” Mieres tells TODAY.com.
“So there was a need to sort of issue a call to action, to say we need to increase awareness … but definitely make it customized to women, especially women of color. The one-size approach didn’t work.”
About 80% of heart disease is preventable, according to the American Heart Association.
Traditional risk factors include diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, family history of heart disease, smoking, physical inactivity, poor diet and obesity.
It’s a start, but…
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