Coronary Heart Disease Perception

Perception, Knowledge & Awareness of Coronary Heart
Disease among rural Australian women 25 to 65 years of age – A Descriptive Study

Rosanne Crouch
Submitted for Master of Nursing Science, October 2008
Discipline of Nursing, The University of Adelaide

Table of Contents
Index of Figures……………………………………………………………………...iii
Index of Tables ....................................................................................................... iii
Signed Statement .................................................................................................... iv
Acknowledgement ................................................................................................... v
Abstract ..................................................................................................................
This represented a doubling of overall risk compared with men without diabetes and a fivefold increase for women.[48] This may be due to these women with diabetes more often having added risk factors, such as obesity, hypertension and high cholesterol.[49] Diabetes is more likely to be associated with elevations in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure in women than in men.[48] Weight gain, even of a modest degree, increases the risk for type 2 diabetes and heart disease in women.[48] The increase in coronary heart disease risk in women with diabetes has since been confirmed in other epidemiological studies.[50] There is in fact, concern that with the alarming increase in the prevalence of diabetes, the prevalence of coronary heart disease mortality is also increasing, particularly in women.[48]
The risk of developing coronary heart disease increases as well as the long term mortality is higher in women with diabetes, as diabetes eliminates the usual female advantage for coronary disease mortality.[49, 51-54]

Women with diabetes