US women still neglect heart risk, studies find

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. women still do not fully
understand their high risk of heart disease and are confused by
reports that suggest being overweight and inactive are not
really that dangerous, the American Heart Association said on
Tuesday.

Statistics released on Tuesday show 483,800 American women
died from heart disease and stroke in 2003, the latest year for
which detailed statistics are available.

Six million women had coronary heart disease and 3.1
million had strokes, the association said in a special issue of
its journal Circulation.

“That’s more lives than were claimed by the next five
leading causes of death combined: cancer, chronic obstructive
pulmonary disease, Alzheimer’s, diabetes and accidents,” the
Heart Association said.

But only 55 percent of 1,008 women surveyed knew that heart
disease is the No. 1 killer of U.S. women over the age of 25 —
although that is up from 30 percent in 1997.

Just 38 percent of blacks and 34 percent of Hispanic women
knew heart disease was their biggest disease risk, the Heart
Association said.

Women also fail to realize the importance of exercise and
weight loss, said Dr. Frank Hu, an associate professor of
nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public
Health in Boston.

Hu studied 88,393 women between the ages of 34 and 59 who
were taking part in the larger Nurses’ Health Study. He found
that those who were obese and who did not exercise were 3.4
times more likely to have heart disease over the 20 years of
the study.

Those who were active but obese were 2.48 times more likely
to have heart disease. Those who were at a normal weight but
who did not exercise were 1 1/2 times as likely to have heart
disease as the very few women who were both lean and who
exercised regularly.

FIT AND FAT

“A high level of physical activity did not eliminate the
risk of coronary heart disease associated with obesity and
leanness did not counteract the increased coronary heart
disease risk associated with inactivity,” Hu told reporters in
a telephone briefing.

“Obese, sedentary smoking women had 9.4 times the risk of
coronary heart disease compared to lean, active women.”

Hu said the findings countered some recent studies that
suggested people could get away with being fat if they
exercised.

“Both fitness and weight are independent and serious
predictors of heart risk,” Hu said.

Dr. Lori Mosca of New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New
York said doctors and patients alike often are misled by news
reports of individual studies.

“I think what women find confusing is the mixed messages
about diet and lifestyle and drug therapy,” Mosca told the
briefing.

“What happens is when studies get reported one week and
then the next week there is a study showing a completely
different finding, that confuses the public and doctors alike,”
she said.

“In science and medicine there is rarely a single report
that is definitive and changes medical practice.”

Another study in Circulation showed that women in Europe do
not get the same treatment for heart disease as men do —
echoing recent U.S. findings.

“Women are under-investigated and under-treated,” said
Caroline Daly, a cardiologist in training at the Royal Brompton
and Harefield National Health Service Trust in London.

Her study of more than 3,700 patients with chest pain at
197 centers across Europe showed women were less likely to get
a standard electrocardiogram or to get drugs to treat heart
disease.