Myths about heart disease among urban women revealed

 Dr. Jagdish Hiremath – Cardiologist, Pune.

• Setting the Context
• Survey Methodology
• Demographic profile of the sample
• Health consciousness among urban women in India 
• Proactively taking regular health check up
• Frequency of getting an Cholesterol test done
• Frequency of getting an ECG test done 
• Awareness about Heart Care & Diseases
• Awareness of stress test for detection of Coronary Artery Disease
• Knowledge on either Heart attack or Coronary artery disease
• Awareness on symptoms on heart disease
• Awareness of various treatments for heart disease
• Awareness of Interventional methods due to heart disease incidences in the family
• Awareness of key cause of Heart ailments
• Awareness on susceptibility to heart disease as compared to other disease
• General Awareness on Heart incidences at a global level , in year 2010
• Health Information Source
• Need for knowledge on proactive heart care
• Conclusions

Proactively taking regular health check up

Observations:

• Most surveyed women go for a health check up only they have a
   health problem.

Inference: 

• Women do not proactively have a health check up  and this results in
   their being unaware of their BP, Cholesterol, Blood Sugar levels, etc.
   This can result in undue delay in realizing their health problems.

Frequency of getting an Cholesterol test done

Observations:

• Most of the women do go for Cholesterol test whenever they have a
   health problem.

Frequency of getting an ECG test done 

Observations:

• Most of the surveyed women undergo ECG level test when they have
   a health problem.

Inference:

• Women do not proactively take ECG and Cholesterol test. Most of
   them take a test when prescribed by a doctor / suspect some health
   problem.

B. Awareness about Heart Care & Diseases

The awareness level was analyzed by taking into consideration the following aspects:

1. Awareness of Heart diseases
2. Awareness of treatments for Heart ailments
3. Awareness of prevention techniques for heart diseases
4. Awareness of symptoms of heart diseases
5. Awareness level about stress test as a modality of 
   detection for CAD

Awareness of Heart diseases

Observations:

• Overall awareness of heart disease is high. 

Awareness of stress test for detection of Coronary Artery Disease

Observations:

• Awareness about stress test as a modality to detect CAD disease is
   moderate.