Americans, Worried About Heart Disease, Don’t Know What Causes It

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 12, 2:56PM EST · Published Feb 11, 8:35AM EST

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[cnxvideo id=”507734″ placement=”ros”]Americans are worried about dying from heart disease. However, a new study shows that most people don’t know what causes it.

The Cleveland Clinic recently issued research that showed the following:

[W]hile 68 percent of Americans are worried about dying from heart disease, many don’t know the basic numbers important for heart health.

The survey found most people know the numbers that are key to their financial wellbeing, but they’re not as savvy when it comes to their health. For example, nearly half (46 percent) of those surveyed knew their bank account balance, while just 18 percent could state their body mass index (BMI) and only 38 percent knew their blood pressure.

This means there may be some people who do not know they are obese, presumably.

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Further, the study’s authors wrote:

Heart disease is the No. 1 cause of death in the United States and around the world. While some risk factors for heart disease are not modifiable, others such as blood pressure, cholesterol, BMI, waist circumference, glucose and weight are alterable. While many people did know the risk factors, less knew the healthy range for them. Only four in ten Americans knew a healthy blood pressure reading was less than 120/80. Also, while half (52 percent) are aware BMI is an important factor, only a quarter (23 percent) know that a person is considered overweight with a BMI of 25 or more.

Also:

“Studies have suggested the majority of coronary artery disease events can be prevented by addressing treatable risk factors,” said Steve Nissen, M.D., chairman of Cardiovascular Medicine at Cleveland Clinic. “That means, a little knowledge regarding your ‘numbers’ could go a long way to helping keep your heart healthy and avoiding future problems.”

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger? Apparently not.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.