Key result
A survey of 1,044 female public employees found high general awareness of CVD as the leading cause of death (~90%), but lower personal risk awareness for blood glucose (40.8%) and BMI (29.4%).
Why the study?
What is the level of personal cardiovascular disease risk-factor awareness among female public employees in North Dakota?
Cross-Sectional (n=1,044)
What is the level of personal cardiovascular disease risk-factor awareness among female public employees in North Dakota?
Despite high general awareness of cardiovascular disease as the leading cause of death in women, personal awareness of specific risk factors like blood glucose and BMI remains low, highlighting a need for targeted educational programs.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Low personal risk-factor awareness persists among women; hypothesis-generating for targeted education, needs prospective validation before practice change.
General awareness of cardiovascular disease (CVD) as the leading cause of death for women and knowledge of CVD risk factors have increased in the last 10 years. Whether this greater general awareness and knowledge leads to improved risk assessment on a personal level remains uncertain. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to measure the knowledge of CVD risk factors and determine the level of personal CVD risk-factor awareness among female public employees of North Dakota, ND, USA. A 30-item, pretested, standardized questionnaire was adapted from previous American Heart Association (AHA) nationwide surveys to measure awareness of the AHA's Go Red For Women movement and cardiovascular health. The online survey was completed by 1044 women, with most of the participants ( approximately 90%) reported as being aware that heart disease was the leading cause of death for women in the USA, which is much higher than the national average. Nearly all the participants (97.3%) correctly recognized the Go Red 'Red Dress' symbol, and knew that it relates to women and heart disease. The prevalence of individual CVD risk awareness was high for blood pressure (82.2%) and moderately high for cholesterol (67%). Much lower rates of CVD awareness were reported for blood glucose (40.8%) and BMI (29.4%). Along with age and certain socioeconomic factors, awareness of any one CVD risk factor was strongly associated with awareness of other CVD risk factors. It is worth mentioning that the participants with favorable demographics and background characteristics and with a high general awareness may also have low personal awareness of certain CVD risk factors. This low personal awareness lessens one's perceived susceptibility to CVD, which in turn reduces the likelihood of adopting preventive action to decrease personal risk of CVD. Future awareness programs should concentrate on improving individual risk awareness, particularly of blood glucose and BMI, as a means of improving behavior towards better cardiovascular health.
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Mozumdar et al. (2010) conducted a cross-sectional in Cardiovascular disease (n=1,044). Cardiovascular disease risk factor awareness was evaluated on Level of personal CVD risk-factor awareness. A survey of 1,044 female public employees found high general awareness of CVD as the leading cause of death (~90%), but lower personal risk awareness for blood glucose (40.8%) and BMI (29.4%).
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