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By MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical WriterThu Feb 21, 5:37 PM ET
Only about 1 in 4 Americans know the warning signs of a heart attack and what
to do first, according to a new government report. That's a decline in
knowledge since the last survey in 2001, which showed nearly 1 in 3 to be well
informed.
The study's lead author, Dr. Jing Fang, called public awareness in the new
survey "alarmingly low." Fang is with the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, which surveyed residents of 13 states and the District of Columbia.
Heart attack warning signs can include one or more of the following five
symptoms: shortness of breath; pain or discomfort in the chest; discomfort in
the arms or shoulder; a feeling of weakness or lightheadedness; and discomfort
in the jaw, neck or back.
Chest pain is the most common symptom. Women are more likely than men to
experience some of the other symptoms, particularly shortness of breath and
back or jaw pain, according to the American Heart Association.
Anyone experiencing these symptoms should call 911, the heart association
advises.
The groups best informed of heart attack warning signs and what to do about
them tended to be white, highly educated, and women. Also scoring well were
residents of West Virginia, which has some of the nation's highest heart attack
death rates.
Each year more than 900,000 Americans suffer a heart attack, and about 157,000
of them are fatal. About half the deaths occur within an hour of symptoms
occurring, experts say.
Because different people experience different symptoms, it's important to be
aware of all of them, doctors say.
"It's not always massive chest pain," said Wayne Rosamond, a University of
North Carolina epidemiology professor and expert on heart disease statistics.
Of course, knowing is not the same as doing: Although most of those who got the
heart attack symptoms right said they would call 911, other studies show that
only about half of heart attack victims go to a hospital by ambulance, Rosamond
noted.
Patients' concerns about lack of health insurance status or other matters may
explain why so few go to a hospital, said Rosamond, who was not involved in the
new study.
The CDC's findings were based on a random-digit-dial telephone survey of about
72,000 people in 2005.
In West Virginia, more than 35 percent of respondents from that state knew all
five warning signs and that they should call 911, compared with 27 percent in
the overall study population.
Iowa and Minnesota also were at the top of the list. The gap between West
Virginia and the two other states was not statistically significant.
West Virginia consistently ranks among the states with the highest heart attack
deaths rates, and also is a leader in smoking, obesity, high cholesterol and
other heart disease risk factors. But it's not clear whether personal
experience was the reason the state's residents were so well informed. Public
health education campaigns or other factors may also explain the result,
experts said.