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.
Recommendations range from lifestyle interventions such as following a heart healthy diet and incorporating physical activity to the use of specific drugs required to treat risk factors for CVD.
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 he
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Contact: NHLBI Communications Office
nhlbinews@nhlbi.nih.gov
301-496-4236
NIH/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
4-Feb-2004