Cardiovascular disease



Cardiovascular disease

The term cardiovascular disease refers to a disorder of the cardiovascular system, and is considered the leading cause of deaths in the world. To identify patients at risk for cardiovascular disease requires assessment of risk factors such as modifiable and non modifiable.

There are only a small number of factors that are non-modifiable, these being the person's age, gender, family history and their race and ethnicity. Specifically, a person's race and ethnicity play a role in risk for cardiovascular disease. For Example, it has been proven that people with African American (women) are at higher risk of developing cardiovascular diseases than any other racial group. Women from African American background have the highest mortality rate among women in the US. Obstacles to health care include high levels of poverty, scarcity of healthcare services, knowledge deficits and poor access to preventative care (Taylor, et.al, 2002).

People's perception of disease also influences preventative care. According to a study, women's perception of cardiovascular disease is not severe and most women are more concerned with being diagnosed with cancer. People's knowledge deficit as well as non compliance with life style changes may impede preventable efforts (Mosca, et.al, 2009).

While there are non-modifiable risk factors, there are various risk factors that can be modified/ changed that individuals can use to prevent from becoming diagnosed with cardiovascular disease such as smoking, inactivity and diet to name a few.

Heart disease is one of the leading causes of death for all cultural groups. People from African American background have mortality rates 50% higher than that of Caucasians. (Shi, et.al, 2010).

The research shows that the cardiovascular disease is more likely to occur in people with low socioeconomic status. Low socioeconomic status is regarded as the last risk while assessing the cardiovascular disease. Socioeconomic can be defined as: a ...