Midlife heart-health awareness remains uneven
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in women, but many women entering or living through menopause may not recognize either that fact or the way cardiovascular risk can change during these years. An international study involving 7,470 women aged 40 to 60 has identified substantial gaps in knowledge, clinical discussion and access to menopause information.
The research drew on responses from women in Ireland, Spain, Greece, Croatia, Lithuania and Colombia as part of CARAMEL, a Horizon Europe project focused on cardiovascular-risk assessment in menopausal women. Researchers at Trinity College Dublin’s School of Nursing & Midwifery also used interviews and co-design workshops with women and clinicians across the six countries.
Only 48% of the women surveyed knew that heart disease is their leading cause of death, according to the study. Awareness differed sharply by country: 67% of participants in Ireland recognized the risk, compared with 19% in Colombia. The result points to a public-health challenge that is both widespread and unevenly distributed.
Knowledge gaps extend beyond a single statistic
The study reports that more than half of participating women were unaware of their risk of heart disease or of the possibility that menopause can increase that risk. That finding is notable because most respondents were university educated. The researchers said the gaps observed in the survey may therefore be greater in the broader population.
Participants also reported multiple symptoms, while many had never discussed their heart health with a doctor or nurse. The findings do not establish why those conversations are absent in individual cases, but they suggest that menopause care and cardiovascular prevention are not consistently being connected in routine health discussions.
The study additionally highlighted the experiences of women with intellectual disabilities. Most of those women had received no information about menopause before it began, according to the researchers. That finding raises an accessibility issue alongside the larger question of cardiovascular literacy: health information needs to reach people before symptoms or risk factors become an urgent concern.
Why the menopause years matter
Menopause is a period in which women may encounter new symptoms and changing health needs. The survey’s central message is not that every symptom signals cardiovascular disease. Rather, it is that women need clear, usable information about increased cardiovascular risk during these years and a route to discuss concerns with a health professional.
Dr. Sharon O’Donnell, an associate professor in critical care nursing and CARAMEL lead at Trinity’s School of Nursing & Midwifery, said the research found major gaps in what women know about menopause and heart health. She urged women seeking more information, concerned about symptoms or noticing symptoms to speak with a primary-care doctor or another health-care professional.
For health systems, the study provides a practical signal that general menopause education may need to incorporate cardiovascular prevention more explicitly. The differences in awareness between participating countries also mean a single communication strategy may not be enough. Local health-care access, information channels and the needs of particular communities should shape how prevention information is delivered.
A prevention portal is part of the response
As part of CARAMEL, the team has developed a cardiovascular-disease prevention portal intended to help women learn about heart health and to support health-care professionals giving advice and care during menopause. The study was published in BMC Women’s Health.
The survey cannot by itself measure whether a portal or other intervention will close the gap. It does, however, provide a baseline for the problem: awareness is incomplete, clinician conversations are often missing, and some groups receive little or no information before menopause starts.
The clearest implication is that heart health should not be an afterthought in conversations about midlife women’s health. Better information can help women recognize that cardiovascular prevention belongs in those conversations, while accessible clinical advice can help translate awareness into appropriate individual care.
This article is based on reporting by Medical Xpress. Read the original article.
Originally published on medicalxpress.com
