Young women take health for granted: awareness survey
PUNE: Women above 40 have a regular exercise schedule while those between 25 and 40 years simply did not have the time. Young women are falsely secure about their health and take it for granted. Most women do not proactively have a health check up and only undergo a cholesterol test if they face a health problem.
These are findings of a survey conducted on a random sample of 250 urban women through telephone calls and emails, to assess awareness levels of heart care by cardiologist Dr Jadgish Hiremath as part of the ?My Fit Heart? programme.
The study shows that women above 40 years of age exercise regularly, which is not the case with younger women. This, due to hectic lifestyles where women have to ma
nage their homes and careers, says Hiremath. He added that another reason could be that young women are falsely secure about their health and have taken it for granted.
This results in most of the women being unaware of their BP, cholesterol and blood sugar levels. This can result in undue delay in realising their health problems.
The study assessed the level of awareness about heart diseases, preventive measures for them, and knowledge of available cures among urban Indian women. Fifty per cent of the sample were working women, while 57 per cent were more than 40 years old.
According to Hiremath, women are more prone to heart disease as compared to other diseases. Post menopause, women become highly prone to heart ailments owing to the absence of the protective female hormone progesterone.