“Women are immune to heart problems,” is a wrongly held belief. The biggest killer of women is neither breast cancer nor uterine problems. Most women lose their lives to heart problems and strokes. Though, they may be less common in women before menopause but afterwards the disease is not only more common in females, it is more aggressive and flows a more serious course. Most women, even in the West, are not aware of the gravity of situation. This requires urgent attention and a well coordinated prevention plan.
A landmark meeting of specialists was held in Canada called the ‘First International Conference on Women, Heart Disease and Stroke’, on May 10, 2000. This took account of the situation and made elaborate recommendations. Some of the recommendations made there were to involve women in the development, implementation and evaluation of programs and services. To remove barriers to women’s participation in leadership positions in all sectors. Most importantly, to tailor programs and services to women’s needs including primary prevention, screening, diagnosis and treatment, prevention of recurrence, rehabilitation and support programs and services
What are the major factors?
Important factors have been identified which play a substantial role in the causation of heart diseases and strokes in both men and women.
a. Poverty:
It is the biggest curse around the World. The picture becomes more obvious when one realizes that more than 1000 million people live in absolute poverty, approximately 900 million are illiterate, about 2000 million people are deprived of potable water and approximately 800 million people go hungry every day. Though it may seem incredible but the truth is that there are 150 million undernourished children under 5 years of age and 14 million children less than 5 years old die every year. Women are the worst sufferers of this appalling poverty.
b. Response to stress:
Individuals cope in a variety of ways to external stress. Health effects of stress are shaped by social and cultural factors. Western assumption is that host response mechanisms operate only at the level of individual. The cross-cultural research suggests that many other factors have important roles to play and determine the response to stress. The response to stress of women in developing countries may be different and more severe.
c. Roles of Women
The women of today and yesterday has been “E”-woman which means EVERYTHING TO EVERYONE AT EVERY TIME. Women have various roles which vary by culture and country. Women tend to have primary responsibility for maintaining a home and caring for family members – young and old. This creates double workload, looking after family and in many cases earning money. As compared to men more efforts have to be put in by women in looking after family and fulfilling all family members’ need.
d. Inequalities of society:
Though health services are inadequate for the general population but of what is available women face great inequalities due to unequal access to and use of basic resources. Major reason for that is unequal access to primary care across all strata. Health policies and programs do not address this problem objectively and positively and this leads to persistence of inadequate and inappropriate health services for women.
How to promote women’s heart health?
Considering the risk factors for heart problem and stroke, a policy was decided upon to work on some guiding principles. For the promotion of women’s heart health and prevention and management of heart diseases and stroke following goals may be considered and worked at:
· Heart healthy habits:
Women have same risk factors as men. Conglomeration of risk factors has to be appreciated. Recognition of risk factors and control of risk factors is the foremost principle. Modifiable risk factors are high blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking, lack of exercise and obesity. Health promoting dietary habits and regular physical activity have to be promoted. Health promoting dietary habits should be conducive in reducing weight by reducing caloric intake and regular exercise. Diet has to be modulated to keep cholesterol in lower limits. Regular physical activity for all ages and both sexes should be ingrained in our priorities and emphasis should be placed on it from young age. Women in developing countries are not encouraged to exercise and participate in sports. These civil barriers have to be broken and females have to be encouraged to remain active and take regular exercise.
· Research:
There is a need to address the issues of heart disease and stroke among women, including cardiovascular health and disease among women and the impact of preventive and therapeutic intervention on women. This should include gender sensitive research, education, training and supportive environments for women researchers. There is dire need, especially in Pakistan for involvement of women directly in the identification of women’s research issues, methods, analyses and interpretation of results.
· Dissemination of information:
There is urgent need to develop an “info-structure” to effectively disseminate the latest research pertinent to women. Recommendations on latest guidelines issued by various bodies have to be made public. Burning issues in women’s health need media attention and any conclusion drawn need to reach the end users. Ongoing programs need surveillance and monitoring of their findings and to be made available to general public on print and electronic media.
In conclusion, we have to recognize that heart diseases and stroke are the leading causes of death among women in the developed world and are fast approaching the same status in the developing world. Gender inequity, poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, and lack of access to health services influence women’s health, and we have to take appropriate actions to address these and other underlying determinants of health, and promote a healthy lifestyle that would help prevent heart diseases and stroke in women.
___________________________________________________
Ref: Heal Thy Heart written by Prof: Dr. Muhammad Hafizullah
A landmark meeting of specialists was held in Canada called the ‘First International Conference on Women, Heart Disease and Stroke’, on May 10, 2000. This took account of the situation and made elaborate recommendations. Some of the recommendations made there were to involve women in the development, implementation and evaluation of programs and services. To remove barriers to women’s participation in leadership positions in all sectors. Most importantly, to tailor programs and services to women’s needs including primary prevention, screening, diagnosis and treatment, prevention of recurrence, rehabilitation and support programs and services
What are the major factors?
Important factors have been identified which play a substantial role in the causation of heart diseases and strokes in both men and women.
a. Poverty:
It is the biggest curse around the World. The picture becomes more obvious when one realizes that more than 1000 million people live in absolute poverty, approximately 900 million are illiterate, about 2000 million people are deprived of potable water and approximately 800 million people go hungry every day. Though it may seem incredible but the truth is that there are 150 million undernourished children under 5 years of age and 14 million children less than 5 years old die every year. Women are the worst sufferers of this appalling poverty.
b. Response to stress:
Individuals cope in a variety of ways to external stress. Health effects of stress are shaped by social and cultural factors. Western assumption is that host response mechanisms operate only at the level of individual. The cross-cultural research suggests that many other factors have important roles to play and determine the response to stress. The response to stress of women in developing countries may be different and more severe.
c. Roles of Women
The women of today and yesterday has been “E”-woman which means EVERYTHING TO EVERYONE AT EVERY TIME. Women have various roles which vary by culture and country. Women tend to have primary responsibility for maintaining a home and caring for family members – young and old. This creates double workload, looking after family and in many cases earning money. As compared to men more efforts have to be put in by women in looking after family and fulfilling all family members’ need.
d. Inequalities of society:
Though health services are inadequate for the general population but of what is available women face great inequalities due to unequal access to and use of basic resources. Major reason for that is unequal access to primary care across all strata. Health policies and programs do not address this problem objectively and positively and this leads to persistence of inadequate and inappropriate health services for women.
How to promote women’s heart health?
Considering the risk factors for heart problem and stroke, a policy was decided upon to work on some guiding principles. For the promotion of women’s heart health and prevention and management of heart diseases and stroke following goals may be considered and worked at:
· Heart healthy habits:
Women have same risk factors as men. Conglomeration of risk factors has to be appreciated. Recognition of risk factors and control of risk factors is the foremost principle. Modifiable risk factors are high blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking, lack of exercise and obesity. Health promoting dietary habits and regular physical activity have to be promoted. Health promoting dietary habits should be conducive in reducing weight by reducing caloric intake and regular exercise. Diet has to be modulated to keep cholesterol in lower limits. Regular physical activity for all ages and both sexes should be ingrained in our priorities and emphasis should be placed on it from young age. Women in developing countries are not encouraged to exercise and participate in sports. These civil barriers have to be broken and females have to be encouraged to remain active and take regular exercise.
· Research:
There is a need to address the issues of heart disease and stroke among women, including cardiovascular health and disease among women and the impact of preventive and therapeutic intervention on women. This should include gender sensitive research, education, training and supportive environments for women researchers. There is dire need, especially in Pakistan for involvement of women directly in the identification of women’s research issues, methods, analyses and interpretation of results.
· Dissemination of information:
There is urgent need to develop an “info-structure” to effectively disseminate the latest research pertinent to women. Recommendations on latest guidelines issued by various bodies have to be made public. Burning issues in women’s health need media attention and any conclusion drawn need to reach the end users. Ongoing programs need surveillance and monitoring of their findings and to be made available to general public on print and electronic media.
In conclusion, we have to recognize that heart diseases and stroke are the leading causes of death among women in the developed world and are fast approaching the same status in the developing world. Gender inequity, poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, and lack of access to health services influence women’s health, and we have to take appropriate actions to address these and other underlying determinants of health, and promote a healthy lifestyle that would help prevent heart diseases and stroke in women.
___________________________________________________
Ref: Heal Thy Heart written by Prof: Dr. Muhammad Hafizullah
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