Suchergebnisse

Purpose. This study evaluated the consistency of cardiovascular health information in popular women's magazines against the American Heart Association's (AHA) guidelines for nutrition, physical activity, weight management, and smoking. Design. Six issues of four publications, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Vogue, and Shape (24 total) were reviewed for inclusion. Setting. Content analysis was performed by two independent raters on 162 articles (283 instances of priority-related information). Measures. Articles were rated using a questionnaire developed from the AHA-recommended priorities. Analysis. Results are presented primarily in qualitative form, supplemented by analyses of variance and correlation significance tests when appropriate. Results. Physical activity was the most common topic, followed by nutrition, weight management, and cigarette smoking. Information about weight management was less consistent than other areas. Although publications varied widely in the frequency of coverage, there was no significant difference among them in overall consistency of the information. No articles gave information directly contrary to the AHA recommendations. Limitations include the subjective nature of the content analysis and the limited number of publications and time period for review. Conclusion. Women are receiving information related to diet, exercise, weight management, and cigarette smoking in popular magazines. However, the information is variable to the extent that it is consistent with evidence-based prevention guidelines.

Each year, the American Heart Association (AHA), in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, and other government agencies, brings together the most up-to-date statistics on heart disease, stroke, other vascular diseases, and their risk factors and presents them in its Heart Disease and Stroke Statistical Update. The Statistical Update is a valuable resource for researchers, clinicians, healthcare policy makers, media professionals, the lay public, and many others who seek the best national data available on disease morbidity and mortality and the risks, quality of care, medical procedures and operations, and costs associated with the management of these diseases in a single document. Indeed, since 1999, the Statistical Update has been cited more than 8700 times in the literature (including citations of all annual versions). In 2009 alone, the various Statistical Updates were cited ≈1600 times (data from ISI Web of Science). In recent years, the Statistical Update has undergone some major changes with the addition of new chapters and major updates across multiple areas. For this year's edition, the Statistics Committee, which produces the document for the AHA, updated all of the current chapters with the most recent nationally representative data and inclusion of relevant articles from the literature over the past year and added a new chapter detailing how family history and genetics play a role in cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. Also, the 2011 Statistical Update is a major source for monitoring both cardiovascular health and disease in the population, with a focus on progress toward achievement of the AHA's 2020 Impact Goals. Below are a few highlights from this year's Update.