In a bid to create awareness on cardio vascular diseases which are seen to be killing more women than all the cancers combined, a campaign has been launched to reach out to the estimated 450 million women in India.
A joint initiative of the Heal Foundation in partnership with the Indian Public Health Association (IPHA) and the Centre for Community Medicines AIIMS, New Delhi, and Biocon, the ‘Queen of Heart’ campaign aims to touch and influence many hearts.
In India, though heart disease is considered a men’s disease, the new campaign aims to turn the conventional perception around and focus on women being victims of heart disease.
Globally, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has pegged the number of cardiovascular deaths among women at 8.6 million, which includes 34 per cent women from India. With around three million Indian women succumbing to heart-related complications every year, the organisations felt the need for such campaigns was amplified.
In a recent survey which mapped the trend of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) in Indian women, some 83 per cent of doctors said Indian women were ignorant about heart diseases while 76 per cent observed that women die of heart diseases due to late presentation at the hospital. Around 66 per cent cited that CVD deaths among women was due to late diagnosis.
Moreover, the first phase of the Million Death Study to analyse the causes of deaths in India annually had also shown that CVDs are the leading cause of death among women.
”For strengthening and improving healthcare delivery in the country, it is very important to have a balanced approach towards universal health, which will remain an unrealised goal until interventional strategies encompass public health in the right way,” said Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Chairman and Managing Director, Biocon.
Stating that more young women are resorting to tobacco smoking these days, K. Srinath Reddy, President, World Heart Federation, and President, Public Health Foundation of India, said this was one of the most significant factors behind the rise of CVDs among Indian women.
The campaign is aimed to be an interactive campaign focussed firmly on heart disease in Indian women. With its integrated 360-degree communication approach, the campaign aims to bust myths, enlighten men, and urge them to take their loved ones (women) to a cardiologist for a precautionary heart check-up.