Heart Disease Prevention Guidelines

Taking socioeconomic and personal factors into consideration seem to be the more practical approach in preventing heart disease in women, according to the updated 2011 guidelines. More women outside clinical research studies often have varying backgrounds such as: older patients, bad vision, psychiatric illness, communication and receptive barriers, and poverty.

In clinical research, volunteers are recruited but often have to meet certain criteria in order to participate. Generally, real patients with different mental, physical and social backgrounds might have adverse outcomes or experience more side effects in comparison to the participants in the studies.

In patient risk evaluation, the guidelines include illnesses linked to higher risk of heart disease such as:

• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Lupus
• Pregnancy complications
• Racial and ethical diversity

Bottom Line- clinical research is a good baseline but now that the new guidelines are taking ÔÇ£real-worldÔÇØ issues into consideration, hopefully heart disease will decline.

For more information, please visit:

http://newsroom.heart.org/pr/aha/1239.aspx