Week 2 Written Assignment: Spreading Awareness

About Womens Heart Issues

Chad Reid
Purdue University

Cardiovascular disease is the number one killer of women in the United States (Johnson
et al., 2015). Its a staggering fact that is often lost on the general public, who mostly dismiss
heart disease as a mostly-male problem. But the prevalence of this preventable disease in women
is an absolute epidemic. And for women over the age of 40 living in our home markets of
Oakland and Washington D.C., its a tragedy.
According to the CDC, heart disease killed more than a quarter of a million women in
2013 in the United States. And perhaps even more startling is the fact that 64 percent of women
who perished to cardiovascular disease exhibited no previous symptoms (CDC, 2016).
The American Heart Association (2016) claims that 80 percent of cardiac events and
stroke are completely preventable -- meaning theres work to do to spread the word. In a written
editors roundtable of MDs, Friedewald et al. (2013) say it best, that women have not embraced
heart disease as the number 1 womans health issue that it clearly is (2013). The lack of
embracement, however, exceeds far beyond women.
At the Public Health Institute, we have an opportunity -- a responsibility even -- to
generate awareness around womens heart disease. Our stated mission at PHI is to generate and
promote research, leadership and partnerships to build capacity for strong public health policy,
programs, systems and practices.
The key stakeholders well need to address for this campaign are women, particularly atrisk ages and demographics; and healthcare providers with cardiology departments. At-risk
women are our primary audiences, and our campaign efforts need to be directed toward them.
Direct mail and social ads to targeted audiences, as well as billboards will be a huge part of our
campaign. We should also make our campaigns translatable enough for the general public to
become aware, since the disease not only affects its victims, but victims families and friends.

While our organizations reach is national, we should localize our campaigns in the onset to test
effectiveness before wide scale launch. Since we have offices in Oakland and Washington DC,
well use these as initial test markets.
I see several ways in which we can spread awareness about this issue, and at the same
time, the Public Health Institute's research and programs. The first is the sponsorship of
community events, like 5K races or walks. Its not uncommon to see events of this nature
promoting heart health, but almost never specifically for women. There are scores of
organizations that promote healthy living that could help sponsor the event, including Whole
Foods, popular fitness centers, producers of healthy foods, and hospitals.
Kaiser Permanente, the hospital goliath thats also headquartered in Oakland, not only
would be an example of a target audience for our campaigns, but would also make a good cosponsor for our initiatives. With their financial and expertise support, we could afford area
billboards, bus ads, and possibly even local radio and TV spots. We could potentially use their
gravitas to pitch a celebrity spokesperson for the campaigns -- particularly one that was impacted
by this tragic disease.
Lastly, were going to need a hashtag. While younger people on social media arent our
primary audience, a hashtag is terrific way to keep the dialogue going digitally. We need to be
careful about what we choose for this, but it should incorporate the seriousness of the issue while
being catchy enough people of all ages to want to share. A hashtag is also a great way to measure
the effectiveness of the campaign, since we can gauge the sentiment and raw numbers of people
using it.

There are successful models for which health issues have received widespread awareness
in the public eye, especially ALS through an ice bucket challenge, and breast cancer, which has
become synonymous with an entire color: pink.
Imagine a society where heart disease for women receives the same level of awareness
that breast cancer does. For example, the National Football League regularly promotes breast
cancer with months dedicated to the cause, and even sells about $12 million dollars worth of
breast cancer awareness apparel every year alone -- and theyre hardly the only sports league to
do so (Dicardo, 2015). Still, the disease doesnt pose nearly the same threat to public health as
womens heart disease.
Major partnerships like this would be key to scaling this campaign outside of our local
markets, but thats a secondary step. In the meantime, our campaign needs to focus on improving
womens health in Oakland and Washington DC markets. While this is a national problem, we
can start by addressing it locally and making a real impact.

References
American Heart Association (2016). Go Red for Women. Retrieved from
https://www.goredforwomen.org/home/about-heart-disease-in-women/
CDC (2016). Women and Heart Disease Fact Sheet. CDC. Retrieved from
http://www.cdc.gov/dhdsp/data_statistics/fact_sheets/fs_women_heart.htm
Dicardo, J. (2015). NFLs breast cancer awareness month more about style than substance. Sports
Illustrated. Retrieved from http://www.si.com/thecauldron/2015/10/26/nfl-breast-cancermonth-deangelo-williams
Johnson, P. C., Bairey Merz, N. N., Andersen, H., Keida, M., Sprague, E., Walsh, M., . . .
Robinson, B. (2015). Abstract 14230: Women Speak up About Personalized Heart Health
Awareness: A Womens Heart Alliance Research Report. Circulation,132(Suppl_3 Suppl 3),
A14230
Friedewald, Hayes, Pepine, Roberts, & Wenger. (2013). The Editor's Roundtable: The 10Q
ReportAdvancing Women's Heart Health Through Improved Research, Diagnosis, and
Treatment. The American Journal of Cardiology, 112(10), 1676-1687.