Cardiovascular Diseases’ Awareness Among Women in Northern Jordan

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Women’s awareness of chronic diseases, including cardiovascular diseases, is the cornerstone in promoting women’s health. Objectives: To examine the relationship of awareness levels about cardiovascular diseases and their related risk factors with demographic information of Jordanian women. 
 
 METHODS: A cross-sectional study of 18 years and older women. Scores of awareness were computed for each individual and were divided into 4 quartiles. Logistic regression analysis was used to examine the association of demographic information of participants with mean scores of quartiles. ANOVA analysis was used to compare the mean scores of quartiles. 
 
 RESULTS: A total of 514 women completed the questionnaire, with a mean age of 35.46 (±12.53). Current smokers were 6.2%, and 34.6% had a family history of heart disease. The proportion of diabetes, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and overweight/obesity were 15.6%, 19.3%, 14.4%, & 21.6% respectively. The mean score for awareness was 12.87 (+ 3.26). Women who had lower income and who were at younger age were more likely to score low in awareness. 
 
 CONCLUSION: Women illustrated a fair level of awareness of CVD and its related risk factors. Increasing women awareness of CVD through educational programs, targeted toward women at risk, assists in disease prevention and help to improve treatment plans.

Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors Awareness among Women with a History of Preeclampsia in Jordan

“…Risk factors of CVDs are serious threats to women's health conditions; the burden of CVD is now growing according to the dramatic rise of significant risk factors, including smoking, DM, obesity, and Hypertension (HTN) (Dunbar et al, 2018). In the current study, the reported prevalence of these factors is similar to or higher than those reported in previous studies (Khader et al, 2018; Okour et al, 2019). These findings could be due to unhealthy habits such as smoking, being too sedentary, having an unhealthy diet, not getting enough sleep, or having erratic sleep patterns, in addition to the family history risk factor.…”

“…In the current study, the reported prevalence of these factors is similar to or higher than those reported in previous studies (Khader et al, 2018;Okour et al, 2019). These findings could be due to unhealthy habits such as smoking, being too sedentary, having an unhealthy diet, not getting enough sleep, or having erratic sleep patterns, in addition to the family history risk factor.…”

“…This result matches the other previous studies (Eshah et al, 2021;Reeder, 2017;Seely et al, 2013;Skurnik et al, 2016;Spratling et al, 2014). It is also incongruent with Okour et al (2019) study, which showed the lacked awareness of CVD in educated women. Moreover, our result showed that women's income was negatively correlated to women's awareness level, which is converse to the result of Okour et al (2019).…”

“…It is also incongruent with Okour et al (2019) study, which showed the lacked awareness of CVD in educated women. Moreover, our result showed that women's income was negatively correlated to women's awareness level, which is converse to the result of Okour et al (2019). A suggested strategy should be developed to enhance knowledge about healthy lifestyle behaviors in the general population.…”