Honoring American Heart Month, TriStar Summit Medical Center employees wore red to work on National Wear Red Day, Friday, Feb. 5, to show their support for women’s heart disease awareness. Heart disease strikes someone in the U.S. about once every 34 seconds and claims more lives than all forms of cancer combined. While men are struck with heart disease at a generally younger age, women have a greater risk of death.
The statistics are alarming:
- 90% of women have one or more risk factors for developing heart disease.
- Cardiovascular diseases cause one in three women's deaths each year, killing approximately one woman every minute.
- Women are less likely to call 9-1-1 when they are having symptoms of a heart attack.
- Heart disease kills more women than all forms of cancer combined, but is often undiagnosed.
- Awareness has helped save more than 627,000 women from heart disease, and 330 fewer are dying per day.
Statistics from the American Heart Association
To learn more about an individual’s risk for heart disease, take TriStar Summit’s online heart risk assessment. By answering a few quick questions, participants immediately receive a digital report with information that allows them to compare their actual age to their heart’s biological age; estimate their risk of developing heart disease over the next 10-30 years; and prioritize their most harmful cardiovascular risk factors. To take the heart risk assessment, simply visit TriStarHealth.com/myheartrisk.