Health
Gender-based breakdown of heart disease
■ An occasional snapshot of current facts and trends in medicine.
Quick View. Posted Sept. 17, 2007
For the past 80 years, heart disease has been a leading cause of death and a major factor in disability in the United States.
Respondents to the 2005 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey* answered questions about whether a doctor or other health professional had ever told them they had experienced a heart attack, angina or other cardiac disease. As the chart indicates, men had a significantly higher prevalence of myocardial infarction history than did women. Additional data also indicate that histories of MI, angina/coronary heart disease and one or more of these conditions appeared to increase in prevalence among successive age groups and decreased with higher education. More information is available online (link).
Note: The BRFSS is a state-based, random-digit-dialed telephone survey of the noninstitutionalized U.S civilian population 18 years or older living in households in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The survey is administered by state health departments in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Source: National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
