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new heart and stroke tool helps women understand and change their risk of cardiovascular disease
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christine faubert (left) and adria scarano (right) hope the new risk assessment tool will help more canadians, women especially, understand their heart health risk factors for better prevention.
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as many as 90 per cent of canadians have at least one risk factor associated with heart disease and stroke. those risk factors can be unchangeable, such as genetics and sex, while others are highly lifestyle and behaviour driven. things such as diet, exercise, history with smoking and alcohol and drug use all come into play regarding modifiable risk factors, with 80 per cent of heart disease and stroke cases being preventable.
however, when people are unaware of their risk factors, making the necessary changes can be challenging.
women, especially, have difficulty knowing their risk factors, with four in 10 knowing that throughout one’s lifetime, the level of risk for heart disease and stroke can change for various reasons. compound that with the fact that women face unique differences in the presentation of heart disease and stroke, and there’s a lack of research surrounding sex-based cardiovascular care, and it’s even more difficult.
that said, women don’t want to be left to wonder about their heart health. as many as 70 per cent of canadians are concerned about their heart health.
that’s why the heart and stroke foundation has created a new risk assessment tool designed to help people, with a special focus on women, find out what their risk factors are so they can do their best to mitigate them.
“we’re trying to raise awareness across the country about women, but also everyone really, that actually heart disease and stroke does impact women more than most people think,” said christine faubert, vice president of health equity, mission impact at the heart and stroke foundation of canada. “for example, we know that heart disease and stroke are actually the number one cause of mortality, premature death among women in canada, and if you were to ask women, they would probably say, ‘i have more chance to die from breast cancer.’”
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adria scarano, an advocate for raising awareness about heart disease, knows firsthand that heart disease isn’t just a man’s illness. she lost her mother to heart-related complications, and because of that, she has familial risk factors to take into account with her own heart health. today, she wants to ensure that others are more aware of the risks of heart disease and stroke and what they can do to prevent them as they age.
“traditionally in medicine, and it’s not just with heart disease and stroke, but anything to do with medicine and health issues predominantly has been researched on men and not women,” she said. “and we know that women have unique physiology and unique biology, so as a woman myself, i’m happy to see now a more public push toward educating people on the understanding that our bodies are physiologically different and therefore we do exhibit things very differently.”
knowing your risk using heart and stroke’s tool
understanding your risk factors for heart disease and stroke is crucial. it can help you take any necessary steps toward lowering it, and in doing so, lower the chance that you’ll have a heart-related event that leads to chronic illness, disability or death. that said, women have not been the focus of heart disease and stroke for so long; they’ve been left in the dark.
for example, many women are unaware that complications during pregnancy, including diabetes, gestational diabetes, or hypertension, can be a sex-specific risk factor that affects a person for up to 10 years following the birth of the child. the menopausal transition also plays a role because of estrogen loss, as the hormone is now considered protective for cardiovascular health.
“younger women, right before they actually get into the menopause stage, that’s (estrogen) protecting their heart. so, that’s why we’ve seen less in the past, less heart conditions or strokes among women before menopause,” said faubert.
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she notes that when the estrogen levels become depleted, that protection is no longer there to ward off heart disease and stroke, which “a lot of women aren’t aware of.”
the tool measures these types of risk factors associated with women alongside those that occur in everyone to create a snapshot of where a person is at, along with actionable advice they can use to reduce their risk.
using the tool is simple and can be completed in a few minutes. all that’s required is answering a few questions about health and lifestyle, and voila: a person’s unique risk will be highlighted. once complete, the assessment will give you a look into your changeable and unchangeable risk factors, alongside the areas you’re doing well, and a customized action plan is created for you to meet your unique needs.
for example, if you find out that you have two risk factors, a poor diet and lack of exercise, the action plan will provide you with information, links and tips on how to improve those parameters so you can decrease your risk without having to do a complete overhaul of your life. follow-up emails with additional support are sent after the assessment is completed, allowing individuals to maintain control of their heart health goals with the help of the heart and stroke foundation.
informing and advocating for the women who’ve been left behind
according to scarano, a lot of women have “suffered in silence” over the years because open conversations about heart health and women were often overshadowed by the impact heart disease and stroke have on men and the lack of research surrounding the differences in male and female presentation. but with the rise of advocacy campaigns and social media, all that is changing in the right direction.
“being able to follow reputable sources like the heart and stroke online, quite frankly, i’ve learned a lot from that. that was how i was exposed to the risk screening tool originally, and that’s how i learned about this awareness campaign and how i was able to become a part of it,” she said, noting that it’s not just knowing who to follow online. it’s also about opening up to friends, colleagues and medical providers about personal risks and concerns.
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“being a lot more open about what your health challenges are, reaching out to your network and peers and saying like, ‘what have you experienced and how were you able to mitigate this?’” is a helpful approach, she said.
she also notes that disparities among women in the country can make it even more challenging to tackle heart disease risk, but the risk tool and awareness can help shrink that gap.
“we do have to acknowledge that there are a lot of women in canada right now, that access to healthy food is cost prohibitive. understanding that lifestyle or your personal lifestyle, sometimes exercise, is going to be challenging,” she said. “as we advocate for women’s heart health, we do need to also, just in the back of our mind, be cognizant of socioeconomic challenges that will make this more challenging for others.”
faubert echoes that point, noting that it’s the hope of those with the heart and stroke foundation, and advocates, that this free tool can provide personalized information that “can’t change people’s context right now” but “gives enough types of ideas and solutions that people can take action in at least one or two areas.”
she continues, “the more people are aware of their risk and they have some access to tips and ideas of what they can do, then we can actually reduce the number of people who are actually getting sick … so this is a very important preventative initiative.”
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