Guidelines for a healthy heart updated to reflect more realistic scenarios

Tuesday, 15 February 2011 16:00

News - Employee Health Benefits

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The American Heart Association has recently changed some of its guidelines for heart disease prevention to more accurately address risk factors in women.

Guidelines now include information regarding other illness that may contribute to cardiovascular disease - like lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and pregnancy complications - as well as risk factors relating to race, mental illness and socioeconomic status.

“Awareness continues to be a key driver to optimal care,” said Lori Mosca, director of preventive cardiology at New York-Presbyterian Hospital.

Results of the study suggest that individuals who receive comprehensive employee health benefits that include coverage for preventative care may be better able to stave off cardiovascular disease, since they can now discuss previously unaddressed risk factors with their doctors.

Awareness and prevention resources like the guidelines and the AHA's Go Red For Women campaign are meant to be education tools to reduce rates of cardiovascular disease in the U.S.

The AHA reports that while medicine, technology and prevention have been effective in decreasing death rates from heart disease by two-thirds over the past decade, one woman still dies every minute from cardiovascular complications.

Organizations that are proactive in spreading awareness and prevention tools may end up with a healthier, more productive staff.