Health Professionals: Your Role in Women's Health

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Heart Disease

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• Helpful Handouts for Patients
• Additional Resources

Many people still think heart disease is a “man’s disease.” Women who are aware that heart disease can affect them may still regard other conditions as a greater threat. However, heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S. for both men and women. Other important information about heart disease that your patients may not know includes:

• Women’s heart attack symptoms are often different than men’s. Rather than the well known symptoms such as chest discomfort and jaw pain, women are more likely to experience nausea, vomiting, fatigue, dizziness, indigestion, and abdominal or back pain.
• Women of all ages can get heart disease. It is the third leading cause of death in women aged 25 to 44, and the second leading cause in women 45 to 64.
• Minority and low-income groups are at greater risk for cardiovascular disease.
• African Americans have the highest rates of blood pressure and tend to develop it at a younger age.
• Research indicates that while cardiac arrest is three times more common in men, women who do arrest have lower recovery and survival rates.

Your patients may not ask about heart disease and their personal risk factors. According to an American Heart Association survey, 93 percent of the women who responded said they were willing to talk to their doctors about heart disease. However, only 38 percent actually had.

Helpful Handouts for Patients

1. Heart Health and Stroke - A special section of womenshealth.gov that gives reader-friendly explanations of heart disease and stroke and lists warning signs.

2. Frequently Asked Questions: Heart Disease - A womenshealth.gov fact sheet that discusses common questions about heart disease.

3. Frequently Asked Questions: Heart Healthy Eating - A womenshealth.gov fact sheet with questions and tips for heart-healthy eating.

Additional Resources

Publications

1. Your Heart, Your Life: A Lay Health Educators Program - This site can help health professionals and other health educators teach others about lowering cholesterol and blood pressure and how to stay physically active to fight heart disease.
2. The Heart Truth: The Educational Site for Health Professionals - This site provides many easy-to-use materials, resources, and tools for health professionals to help women learn about their risk of heart disease and to take action to lower that risk. There are also handouts to print out for your patients.
3. Act in Time to Heart Attack Signs - Patient Action Tablet - Health professionals can use this tablet to emphasize warning signs of a heart attack to patients. (PDF file, 175 Kb)
4. Guidelines on Overweight and Obesity: Electronic Textbook - This electronic textbook provides easy access to The Clinical Guidelines on the Identification, Evaluation, and Treatment of Overweight and Obesity in Adults: The Evidence Report for health professionals. This publication, which was produced by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, provides health professionals with assessment and treatment strategies for people who are overweight or obese.
5. Three Steps to Initiate Discussion about Weight Management with Your Patients - To develop positive rapport with patients, this publication provides effective ways to talk to your patients about weight management. (PDF file, 60 Kb)
6. The Healthy Heart Handbook for Women - Health professionals can give this brochure on heart disease to their female patients. This brochure provides background information on heart disease, major risk factors, and how women can take control of their heart health. (PDF file, 2.45 Mb)
7. When Delicious Meets Nutritious: Recipes for Heart Health - As a health professional, you know that heart healthy living for your patients not only involves developing a physical activity routine, but also involves having a healthy diet. You can use this publication to encourage your patients to prepare meals that are nutritious and heart healthy! (PDF file, 120 Kb)
8. Heart disease: Tests (Copyright © Lab Test Online) - People with heart disease often need many tests. This publication can tell you what specific blood test and evaluations can be done to better serve your patients.

Organizations

1. Heart Truth: A National Awareness Campaign for Women about Heart Disease, The
2. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, NIH, HHS
3. American Heart Association
4. Sister to Sister - Everyone has a Heart Foundation
5. Women's Heart Foundation
6. WomenHeart - National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease

= Federal government resource

Content last updated December 1, 2008.