Heart Disease Among Women Adds Up
Treating Heart Disease May Exceed $1Million Per Case
Heart disease is the leading cause of death among women in the United States, accounting for 32 percent of all deaths among women.1 Over 500,000 women die from heart disease each year (65,000 more than men).2
The misconception that heart disease primarily affects men causes many women to overlook the severity of the disease. While both men and women suffer heart attacks, women are more likely than men to die or become disabled from them. Within six years, 46% of women and 22% of men who survive a heart attack will become disabled with heart failure.3
Despite this evidence, only 20% of women consider heart disease to be their greatest health risk.2
Costs of Heart Disease
A recent study published in Circulation, the Journal of the American Heart Association, addressed the direct costs (inpatient hospitalization, pharmaceuticals) and indirect costs (lost productivity, time away from work) for coronary artery disease (CAD). The study found that on average, lifetime costs associated with severe CAD ranged from $1,001,493 to $1,051,302.4 The average lifetime cost of less severe CAD reached $767,288 per case.4
Heart Disease and its Risk Factors
Heart disease refers to a number of abnormal conditions that affect the heart and its blood vessels.
- The most common type of heart disease for women is coronary artery disease (CAD).2
- With CAD, the arteries narrow and become very hard, making it difficult for blood to get to the heart. CAD may cause angina (chest pain) and heart attack (damage to the heart muscle from insufficient blood and oxygen supply).2
- Heart failure occurs when the heart cannot effectively pump blood throughout the body, causing organs to suffer from inadequate blood supply.
Heart disease is preventable. There are various risk factors associated with heart disease caused by unhealthy lifestyle behavior.
- Smoking (A woman's risk of heart disease will drop by one half just one year after quitting smoking.2 )
- Overweight / Obesity
- Lack of Physical Activity
- High Cholesterol
- High Blood Pressure
Other risk factors not associated with unhealthy lifestyle behavior include family history and age.
What Can Employers Do?
- Work with the health plan to cover preventive services (screenings) and health promotion programs (smoking cessation, healthy diet counseling, etc.) in full or with a nominal co-payment. Offering a benefit that allows employees to receive screenings with no or nominal co-payments eliminates financial barriers to preventive care. Screening for risk factors is cost-effective, and makes financial sense for employers to implement. For more information, please refer to A Purchaser's Guide to Clinical Preventive Services).
- Encourage employees to get screened for potential heart disease risk factors. Smoking, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol are important risk factors for heart disease. Employer support for preventive services such as flexible working hours for employees to receive screenings or reminders to receive screenings will encourage employees to receive these services and highlight their importance.
- Offer employees reimbursement for aspirin therapy. Ensure that flexible spending accounts offer aspirin as an eligible reimbursement. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) strongly recommends that physicians discuss aspirin chemoprevention with their adult patients at increased risk for coronary heart disease (CHD).5 Employers should offer full or partial reimbursement for over-the-counter aspirin. Employers who offer flexible spending accounts should ensure that over the counter aspiring is an eligible healthcare expense
- Offer health promotion programs to employees that focus on reducing heart disease risk and maintaining healthy lifestyle behaviors. Access to various health promotion tools such as nutritional counseling, gym memberships, and health risk assessments encourage employees to adopt healthy lifestyle behaviors, and can provide significant health benefits and cost savings by preventing future disease.
- Provide employees with educational materials on heart disease, its risk factors, and prevention. Empowering employees with information helps them become advocates for their own health as well as better consumers of healthcare services. Educational campaigns on heart disease provide employees with information to determine their risk for heart disease and actionable strategies to reduce risk.
- Office of the President. The Facts: Women and Heart Disease. First Lady Initiatives: Women's Health and Wellness. Available at: www.whitehouse.gov/firstlady/initiatives/womenandheartdisease4.html Accessed January 24, 2007.
- The National Women's Health Information Center. US Department of Health and Human Services. Office of Women's Health. Heart Disease. Washington, DC; Available online at: http://www.4woman.gov/faq/heartdis.htm#a Accessed January 23, 2007.
- National Center on Health Statistics; National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute; and American Heart Association's 2002 Heart and Stroke Statistical Update, which may be viewed online at:
http://www.americanheart.org/downloadable/heart/10148328094661013190990123HS_State_02.pdf
- Shaw LJ, Merz CNB, Pepine CJ, et al. The Economic Burden of Angina in Women With Suspected Ischemic Heart Disease: Results From the National Institutes of Health-National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute-Sponsored Women's Ischemia Syndrome Evaluation. Circulation. August 29, 2006 2006;114(9):894-904.
- U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Aspirin for the primary prevention of cardiovascular events.
recommendations and rationale. Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; 2002. Available from:
http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/3rduspstf/aspirin/asprr.htm. Accessed January 24, 2007.
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