STATEMENT FROM BARBARA ALVING, M.D., ACTING DIRECTOR,
NATIONAL HEART, LUNG, AND BLOOD INSTITUTE, ON GUIDELINES
FOR CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE PREVENTION IN WOMEN
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
of the National Institutes of Health endorses the
evidence based guidelines for the prevention of cardiovascular
disease (CVD) in women released today by the American
Heart Association. These guidelines promise to improve
and enhance efforts to reduce the terrible burden
of cardiovascular disease among women. Although there
have been tremendous improvements in the prevention
and treatment of CVD, it remains the top killer of
women, as well as men, in the United States. Thus,
efforts to attack cardiovascular disease through prevention
strategies are vitally important.
The guidelines support these efforts by giving health
care providers a document that assembles in one place
the evidence-based recommendations from the NHLBI
and other authoritative scientific sources and new
recommendations where appropriate. The document thus
provides guidance on the best cardiovascular disease
preventive care for women with a broad range of cardiovascular
risk.
The American Heart Association guidelines incorporate
and support guidelines developed by the National Cholesterol
Education Program, the National High Blood Pressure
Education Program, and the Obesity Education Initiative,
programs administered by the NHLBI.
The document groups women into categories of high,
intermediate, and lower risk, allowing physicians
and other health care providers to match the intensity
of risk intervention to the level of CVD risk.
Recommendations range from lifestyle interventions
such as following a heart healthy diet and incorporating
physical activity to the use of specific drugs required
to treat risk factors for CVD.
But none of these interventions can occur if women
do not realize that they are at risk for heart disease.
As the new survey released by the American Heart Association
shows, women have made gains in their awareness of
heart disease. In 2003, 46 percent of women surveyed
listed heart disease as women’s leading cause
of death, better than the 34 percent in 2000 but still
short of full awareness. It’s also good news
that 90 to 100 percent of women recognized that exercise,
losing weight, quitting smoking, making dietary choices
that reduce cholesterol levels, and reducing salt
intake are useful lifestyle changes. We’re pleased
to see these improvements and they show that public
awareness and education campaigns like NHLBI’s
Heart Truth are beginning to have an impact.
The Heart Truth is primarily targeted to
women ages 40 to 60, the time when a woman’s
risk of heart disease begins to increase. The Heart
Truth’s Red Dress is the national symbol
for women and heart disease awareness and serves as
an urgent reminder to every woman to take care of
her heart. This Friday, February 6, 2004, is National
Wear Red Day. This awareness day, designated in a
presidential proclamation, provides women and men
across the country a way to be a part of this national
Heart Truth awareness movement.
The Heart Truth doesn’t stop on February
6. As the survey showed, fewer than half of all women
consider themselves very well informed or well informed
about heart disease, a figure that The Heart Truth
hopes to change.
For additional information:
www.hearttruth.gov.
Evidence-Based Guidelines for Cardiovascular Disease
Prevention in Women
Tracking
Women’s Awareness of Heart Disease, an American Heart
Association National Study
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