Heart Attack Symptoms May Not Be Noticed In Younger Women

Heart attacks are typically more common in older individuals, but it can happen in younger people, too.

A new study conducted by Harvard researchers shows that younger women are far more likely to ignore warning signs than other groups.

For the study, researchers studied young women between the ages of 30 and 55 who survived a heart attack. Findings revealed that many of the women didn't pay attention to the early signs such as pain and dizziness.

Furthermore, interviews showed that wide variations in initial heart attack symptoms and factors such as work and family ultimately influenced the women's decisions to seek medical attention.

"Young women with multiple risk factors and a strong family history of cardiac disease should not assume they are too young to have a heart attack," said study author Judith Lichtman, chair of the department of chronic disease epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health in New Haven, Conn., in a news release. "Participants in our study said they were concerned about initiating a false alarm in case their symptoms were due to something other than a heart attack."

Learning early on about the symptoms can help identify any problems later on. Education is certainly key in the battle. The findings reiterate how it's never too soon to study the health problem.

Estimates show that more than 15,000 women younger than 55 die from heart disease in the United States every year, making it the leading cause of death in this age group alone.

More information regarding the findings can be seen via the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.