NHLBI Acting Director Dr. Alving Endorses Guidelines For Cardiovascular Disease Prevention In Women
Statement From Barbara Alving, M.D., Acting Director, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute: Excepts
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health
endorses the evidence based guidelines for the prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD)
in women released today by the American Heart Association. These guidelines promise to improve
and enhance efforts to reduce the terrible burden of cardiovascular disease among women.
Although there have been tremendous improvements in the prevention and treatment of CVD, it
remains the top killer of women, as well as men, in the United States. The guidelines support
these efforts by giving health care providers a document that assembles in one place the
evidence-based recommendations from the NHLBI and other authoritative scientific sources and new
recommendations where appropriate. The document thus provides guidance on the best cardiovascular
disease preventive care for women with a broad range of cardiovascular risk.
The American Heart Association guidelines incorporate and support guidelines developed by the
National Cholesterol Education Program, the National High Blood Pressure Education Program, and
the Obesity Education Initiative, programs administered by the NHLBI.
The document groups women into categories of high, intermediate, and lower risk, allowing physicians
and other health care providers to match the intensity of risk intervention to the level of CVD risk.
But none of these interventions can occur if women do not realize that they are at risk for heart
disease. As the new survey released by the American Heart Association shows, women have made gains
in their awareness of heart disease.
In 2003, 46 percent of women surveyed listed heart disease as women's leading cause of death, better
than the 34 percent in 2000 but still short of full awareness. It's also good news that 90 to 100
percent of women recognized that exercise, losing weight, quitting smoking, making dietary choices
that reduce cholesterol levels, and reducing salt intake are useful lifestyle changes.
We're pleased to see these improvements and they show that public awareness and education campaigns
like NHLBI's "Heart Truth" are beginning to have an impact. "The Heart Truth" doesn't stop on February 6.
As the survey showed, fewer than half of all women consider themselves very well informed or well
informed about heart disease, a figure that "The Heart Truth" hopes to change. For additional
information, visit www.hearttruth.gov.
