Learn to recognize the signs of heart attack

Part one of an article AARP recently posted about the fact that most women miss the signs of heart attack.  Learn how to recognize these signs below.

"Only about half of women would call 911 if they thought they were having a heart attack, according to a new survey commissioned by the American Heart Association. The poll found that more women than in 1997 correctly identified heart disease as the leading killer of women, but that awareness varies among ethnic and racial groups.

Dr. Lori Mosca of Columbia University Medical Center and her colleagues say that a telephone survey of more than 1,100 randomly selected women showed that 60 percent of white women said heart disease was the leading killer of women, compared with 43 percent of African-American women, 44 percent of Hispanic women, and 34 percent of Asian women. A third of women who were 25 to 34 years old picked breast cancer as the biggest threat to women’s health.

Overall, 53 percent of women said they would call 911 if they felt heart attack symptoms. About the same proportion of women recognized chest, neck, shoulder, and arm pain as possible signs of a heart attack in women, but fewer than a third cited another symptom, shortness of breath, as a cause for alarm. About half said family caregiving responsibilities kept them from taking longer-term steps to prevent heart disease, such as checking their blood pressure, managing stress, or seeing their doctors.

BOTTOM LINE: Awareness of heart disease as the leading killer of women has almost doubled since 1997, but gaps persist among ethnic groups. Only about half of women know the symptoms of a heart attack and would call 911 if they thought they were having one.

CAUTIONS: The survey respondents were relatively well-educated, so their answers may represent higher awareness than among women in general. The margin of error was about 2 percent.

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