1. Coronary heart disease develops gradually over many years
and can easily go undetected.
2. Women don’t have to worry about cardiovascular disease.
It’s primarily a man’s problem.
3. If a woman has a heart attack, she is more likely to survive
it than a man.
4. Women are less likely to get heart disease after menopause
than before.
5. When men reach middle age, or about 55, their blood cholesterol
levels start to rise, but women’s cholesterol levels seem to stabilize.
6. African-American females are more likely than white females
are to die from coronary heart disease or stroke.
7. Which of the following is the single most important thing a
woman can do to reduce her risk of heart attack?
a) reduce stress
b) start jogging,
c) reduce salt in her diet,
d) quit smoking
8. Women smokers double their chances of having a heart attack
over women who don’t smoke.
9. Women can reduce their risk of heart attack and stroke by following
which of these lifestyle habits?
a) quitting smoking,
b) exercising regularly,
c)eating a heathy low-fat diet,
d) controlling high blood pressure,
e) controlling cholesterol levels,
f) maintaining their ideal weight,
g) getting regular medical check-ups.
10. Women with heart disease have a lower risk of stroke.
Heart Quiz Answers
-
True. Coronary artery disease takes years to develop
and in the case of women, it takes almost a decade longer to show up.
By then, a woman is often concerned with other health problems such as
cancer, arthritis or osteoporosis. These diseases tend to draw attention
away from the steadily ticking time bomb of heart disease.
-
False. Coronary heart disease is the number one killer
of American women. Of the over 481,000 coronary heart disease deaths
that occur each year, almost half (236,000) are females. In 1995
over 96,000 females died from stroke, accounting for 61 percent of all
stroke deaths.
-
False. Women have lower chances of surviving heart
attacks than men. Studies show that 44 percent of women die within
a year compared with 27 percent of men. At older ages, women who
have heart attacks are twice as likely as men are to die from them within
a few weeks.
-
False. Many women before menopause seem to be protected
from the risk of heart attack and stroke, perhaps by the hormone estrogen,
which raises HDL, or “good” cholesterol level while lowering LDL cholesterol.
But as women approach menopause, at about age 55, things change and the
average women’s blood cholesterol begins to rise. After menopause,
women’s risk of heart attack and stroke continues to rise with age.
Loss of estrogen is a significant contributor to women developing heart
disease after menopause.
-
False. Quite the opposite. Most men’s cholesterol
levels become more stable around age 55, while both LDL “bad” cholesterol
and total cholesterol levels in most women start to rise.
-
True. The death rate for African -American females
from coronary heart disease is more than 35 percent higher than the rate
for white females. Death rate from stroke is 71 percent higher for
African-American females than for white females.
-
d) Quit smoking. Today, 23.5 million American women
smoke. Smoking is the greatest single preventable cause of death,
and is the biggest preventable risk factor for heart attack and stroke
for women.
-
True. Women who smoke run more than twice the risk
of having a heart attack as nonsmoking women.
-
All of the above. Many of the risks for cardiovascular
diseases are controllable through healthy life habits. If women take
control of their lives and choose habits that promote heart health, they
can help prevent heart disease and stroke.
-
False. Coronary heart disease is a major risk factor
for stroke.
Courtesy of “The Heart at Work” from the
American Heart Association.
|
