HER Disease Campaign
Heart disease is not just a ‘man’s disease’
Heart Research UK is challenging the misperception that heart disease is a ‘man’s disease’ and encouraging women, of all ages, to take action to understand the risks and recognise the symptoms of a heart attack.
Coronary heart disease (CHD) kills more than twice as many women as breast cancer in the UK every year, and is one of the main causes of death in women worldwide. 830,000 women in the UK are currently living with CHD and 32,000 women are admitted to hospital following a heart attack each year in the UK – an average of 88 women per day, or four per hour.
CHD is the most common type of cardiovascular disease and is usually the cause of heart attack. There are a number of key medical risk factors including high blood pressure and cholesterol levels, as well as lifestyle factors such as physical inactivity and poor diet that contribute to the startling figures highlighted above.
Also, research has found that there is a gender gap in heart attack care. Women have a higher chance of receiving the wrong initial diagnosis after a heart attack and are less likely than men to receive recommended heart attack treatments. This means that women with CHD are dying unnecessarily from heart attacks and have worse outcomes than men.
Read more about this on our ‘Heart Attack Gender Gap’ page.
The Aims of our Campaign
We have three main aims that we want to achieve:
- To dispel the myth that heart disease only affects men
- To urge women everywhere to know and understand more about their heart health and where to get advice and support
- To raise awareness of the symptoms of heart attack
These startling statistics underline the fact that CHD affects an alarming number of women across the UK and is clearly not just limited to men. Furthermore, a lack of awareness of symptoms and inequalities in diagnosis and treatment of heart attacks are leading to women dying needlessly every day in the UK.
Find out more about the campaign using the links below.
