Conoscenza e consapevolezza del rischio cardiovascolare nella donna: a che punto siamo?

Over the past two decades, several studies have examined gender differences in the clinical manifes-tations and prognosis of cardiovascular disease. The results of these studies have shown some important gender-related differences. While the effects that gender, age and cultural behavior have on the health of men and women have been extensively studied, knowledge and awareness of the impact that gender differences have on the pathophysiolo-gy and treatment of diseases in general and cardio-vascular diseases in particular are still low. Heart disease is the leading cause of death and a major contributor to disability among women world-wide. Although often considered an advanced-aging disease, more than 15,000 deaths each year among women aged ≤ 55 years in the United States can be at-tributed to heart disease. The prevalence of cardiovas-cular disease (CVD) in postmenopausal women is the same as in men, however, in all age groups, women with CVD have relatively worse outcomes than men. Therefore, young women would be less likely to be affected by CVD, but, if affected, are exposed to a death rate and higher complications than men.