Women's cardiovascular health: perspectives from South-East Asia

Abstract

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is an under-recognized major health problem among women in South-East Asia. The prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, physical inactivity, and being overweight or obese has shown a significantly increasing trend among women in the region, with the exception of Singapore. The problem is compounded by low awareness that CVD is a health problem for women as well as for men, by misconceptions about the disease, and by the lack of suitable, locally available health literature. Efforts have been made by the national heart associations and other organizations to increase heart health awareness and promote healthy lifestyles. Singapore initiated these prevention programs in the early 1990s and has been successful in reducing the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors. The governments of the region, in accordance with the Noncommunicable Disease Alliance, have begun implementing appropriate preventive strategies and improving health-delivery systems. However, psychological, social, and cultural barriers to cardiovascular health awareness in women need to be addressed before these programs can be fully and successfully implemented.

Non-Communicable Diseases in Developing Countries: Causes and Health Policy/Program Assessments

“…The study includes three causal factors of NCDs: BMI 30 and higher, systolic blood pressure and cholesterol ratio [1,[17][18][19][20]. The study scrutinizes relatively high systolic blood pressure of 130.22 on average, relatively healthy cholesterol level of 4.4 on average, and the average % of BMI 30 & higher is 14.32% by country which is not particularly high.…”

“…These changes in lifestyle cause obesity, hypertension, and high cholesterol. These are sources of risk/causal factors of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes [17,[20][21][22]. These diseases are almost inevitable under the current urbanization with economic development, especially in developing countries.…”

“…These diseases are almost inevitable under the current urbanization with economic development, especially in developing countries. The effective informal and formal health education regarding NCDs is desirable for health literacy [20]. It is an urgent issue.…”

A Study of Coronary Heart Disease in Postmenopausal Women and Identification of Major Modifiable Determinant Risks for its Prevention

“…It is uncertain whether this excess mortality reflect the older age, smaller body size, more frequent occurrence of other known coronary risk factors and perhaps the low estrogen postmenopausal state itself. [2][3][4][5][6][7][8] Ischemic heart disease is more dependent on age in women than men, women are usually 10 years older than men. After adjusting for age, women are significantly more likely to smoke than men, women are older at enrollment, delayed presentation at hospital after the onset of symptoms and are treated 10 to 15 minutes later after arrival.…”

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] During the past two decades there have been substantial reduction in death rates from acute MI both in men and women in USA. 2 These reductions are attributable to efforts in primary prevention as well as improved therapies for MI. The importance of primary prevention is highlighted by the fact that about a quarter of new cases of coronary heart disease present as sudden death.…”