Why the study?
Women veterans have higher rates of cardiovascular disease than civilian women and present a unique, rapidly growing, at-risk, and under-represented population requiring improved care and research.
This review highlights the unique cardiovascular risk profile of women veterans, calling for improved care and research for this growing population.
May support targeted screening in women veterans; leaves open optimal interventions pending prospective trials.
Cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death for women in the United States. Of the 1.3 million active duty service members, 16.3% are currently women, and the number of women veterans is expected to increase. Women veterans have higher rates of cardiovascular disease than civilian women and present a unique population. We focus on 5 key areas regarding cardiovascular disease care for women veterans: (1) the rapidly changing demographic; (2) prevalence of traditional risk factors; (3) prevalence of less traditional risk factors (eg, homelessness, military sexual trauma, and mental health disorders); (4) treatment and outcomes of cardiovascular disease; and (5) the current state and future directions of research in this area. This review is a call to action for continued improvements in the cardiovascular care and research for this rapidly growing, at-risk, and under-represented population. Visual Overview: A visual overview is available for this article.
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Han et al. (2019) studied this question.
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