Introduction
The topic I will explore is heart disease in women. The question, what do healthcare providers need to know about cardiovascular disease in women and how their symptoms and presentation differ from men will be discussed. Coronary heart disease is the leading cause of death in women and men in the Western world. Nearly 1 million cardiovascular related deaths a year are women. Many women’s risk factors go unrecognized and untreated by their primary care physician (Pregler et al., 2009). According to FamilyDoctor.org, “American women are 4 to 6 times more likely to die of heart disease that of breast cancer” (2009). In generally men have an earlier onset of heart disease than to women but have a higher survival rate from heart attach than do women (Dzugan, 2005). There have been minimal studies done on how a person’s sex can play a role in heart disease. Many healthcare providers and the public in general, think of cardiovascular disease as a man’s disease.
Description of the Problem
Most women are not aware that heart disease is a greater risk for them than breast or cervical cancer. Research has shown that women in general have a lack of knowledge of cardiovascular disease and its deadly risk (Thanavaro, Moore, Anthony, Narsavage & Delicath, 2006). There are numerous risk factors that contribute to the risk of cardiovascular disease. Risk can be categorized into non-modifiable risk factors such as family history, age or sex and modifiable risk factors like diet, high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels. According to Dr. Sergery Dzugan, many physicians may fail to recognize the warning signs in women due to the differences in presentation of symptoms (2005). Clearly there is a need for further research in t...
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Heart disease is one of the most common causes of the mortality and morbidity in most well developed countries. They come in different forms such as stroke and other cardiovascular diseases and it’s the number one cause of death in the state of America. In the year 2011 alone nearly 787,000 people were killed as a result of this epidemic. And this included Hispanic, Africans, whites and Americans. As for the Asian Americans or pacific Islanders, American Indians and the natives of Alaska, the concept to them was a second only to cancer. However, statistics has proved that a person gets heart attack every 34 seconds and in every 60 seconds, someone dies out of it which include other related event. Additionally, majority of the women are the
Tadić, A., Wagner, S., Hoch, J., Başkaya, Ö., von Cube, R., Skaletz, C., ... & Dahmen, N. (2009).
Zhang, Y. B., Harwood, J., Williams, A., Ylänne-McEwen, V., Wadleigh, P. M., & Thimm, C.
Wynn, D., Kaufman, M., Montalban, X., Vollmer, T., Simon, J., Elkins, J., I Rose, J. W. (2010).
Since 1960 the age-adjusted mortality rates for cardiovascular disease (CVD) has declined steadily in the U.S. due to multiple factors, but still remains one of the primary causes of morbidity and premature mortality worldwide. Greater control of risk factors and improved treatments for cardiovascular disease has significantly contributed to this decline (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011). In the U.S. alone it claims approximately 830,000 each year and accounts for 1/6 of all deaths under the age of 65 (Weiss and Lonnquist, 2011). Based on the 2007 mortality rate data an average of 1 death every 37 seconds is due to cardiovascular disease (Lloyd-Jones et al., 2009). Controlling and reducing risk factors is crucial for saving lives. There are a number of contributing risk factors for cardiovascular disease, which may appear in the form of hereditary, behavioral, and psychological, all of which ultimately converge in social or cultural factors.
Heart disease is of utmost and imperative concern in the United States. It stands at the top of the list for causes of death in the U.S., and it can be absolutely devastating (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2013). In part one of the health disparities paper, disparity in relation to heart disease was pointed out in those of low socioeconomic status and/or minorities. Part two of this paper has been streamlined towards a more specific minority: African Americans women. The reason for focusing on the African American women population is that there is a huge amount of disparity seen specifically in this group. As of 2009, African Americans as a whole had 30% more of a chance of dying from cardiovascular disease than Caucasians (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Office of Minority Health [OMH], 2012). The rate of Cardiovascular Disease in African American women specifically is higher at 48.9% than the rate of CVD in African American men at 44.4%, showing even greater disparity in African American women (American Heart Association, 2013). The goal of this paper is to identify and appraise two different articles surrounding this topic. Both articles involve an intervention in which similar community prevention programs were implemented in hopes to reduce the risk of CVD in African American women.
Today, cardiovascular disease is “the number one killer in the United States and the developed world” (Sapolsky, 2004, p. 41). Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the most common form of cardiovascular disease, and is responsible for claiming an unreasonable amount of lives every year. CHD can begin to accumulate in young adults, but is prominently found in both men and women in their later adult lives. As a result of CHD, men typically experience heart attacks, whereas women present with chest pains, known as angina (Matthews, 2005).
Tackett, J. L., Lahey, B. B., van Hulle, C., Waldman, I., Krueger, R. F., & Rathouz, P. J. (2013).
Katzenstein, Larry, and Ileana L. Pinã. Living with Heart Disease: Everything You Need to Know to Safeguard Your Health and Take Control of Your Life. New York: AARP/Sterling Pub. Co, 2007. Print.
Some of the key factors of heart disease are high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and smoking. Half of Americans have one of these three risk factors. Center for Disease Control states that several other medical conditions and lifestyle choices can also put people at a higher risk for heart disease, including; diabetes, overweight and obesity, poor diet, poor physical activity and, excessive alcohol abuse (Americas heart disease burden, 2013). Heart disease is a group of diseases of the heart and the blood vessel system in the heart. Coronary heart disease is the most common type; it affects the blood vessels of the heart. African American women are more likely to die from heart disease than any other race because some say African-American women don’t get the same treatment as the white race will get.
Mensah, G. A., Mokdad, A. H., Ford, E. S., Greenlund, K. J., & Croft, J. B. (2005, January 24). State of Disparities in Cardiovascular Health in the United States. Circulation. Retrieved April 28, 2014, from http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/111/10/1233.short
Timpano, K. R., Keough, M. E., Mahaffey, B., Schmidt, N. B., & Abramowitz, J. (2010).
There is not an ethnic group that is not affected by heart disease. However, “the cardiovascular disease death rate among African Americans is 34 percent higher than for the overall U.S. population”. (“The Facts of Cardiovascular Disease”) African American women ages 50 and up are twice as likely as Caucasian women to be diagnosed with heart disease, and is more likely than Caucasian women to have a heart attack. A heart attack is the most common outcome of heart disease.
Barker, V., Giles, H., Hajek, C., Ota, H., Noels, K., Lim, T-S., & Somera, L. (2008).