BACKGROUND

According to the CDC, the leading cause of death of women in the United States is Heart

Disease (LCOD All Females by Age Group 2015 - Women's Health – CDC, n.d.). This is a

sobering fact but what is more alarming is that heart disease is on the rise. A multi-state study

that spanned from 1995-2014 found that heart disease is rising in younger people, hitting women

considerably harder than young men; women are having heart attacks at an increased rate, “from

21 percent to 31 percent,” (American Heart Association News, 2018). That statistic alone should

be raising red flags to health care professionals around the country, unfortunately it is not. Kaiser

Permanente- Georgia should be focused on women’s cardiovascular health campaign aimed at

reaching three major publics: physicians, women from 35-54, and the family members.

STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION PLAN: PHYSICIANS

Heart disease is not treated in women like it is in men by physicians for two reasons: first,

heart disease has long been considered a “man’s” disease so most physicians tend not to consider

that to be a possibility while treating a woman and second, women tend to have different

symptoms while having a heart attack and thus the attack is missed all together (Lear, 2018).

Doctors in Georgia are required to take 20 hours of continuing education classes every year in

order to keep their license so that they can continue to practice medicine (United States, 2010).

ACTION PLAN:

• Meet with the Georgia medical board and request that one of the 20 hours be focused on

women’s health exclusively and heart disease, specifically.

• Physician’s class would be on a Kaiser campus including a multimedia presentation.

• Short film on of a woman complaining of the symptoms and how a doctor should and

should not respond.

 • The woman in the video will present with symptoms, “such as shortness of breath,

discomfort in their arms, neck and jaw, sweating or nausea… symptoms being fairly

common in women, they are still referred to as ‘atypical’," (Lear, 2018).

EXPECTED OUTCOME:

• If the doctor in the video express the normalcy of these symptoms in women, then the

doctors attending the class may be able to start considering heart disease as an issue that

transcends gender.

STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION PLAN: WOMEN 35-54

Women with diabetes are 44 percent more at risk for heart disease than men (Lear, 2018).

Akil et al was able to conclusively prove a link between obesity and the likeliness of heart

disease (2011). Georgia currently has epidemic levels of diabetes (The Burden of Diabetes

in Georgia, n.d.) and 33.6% of women in Georgia are obese (State Briefs, n.d.).

ACTION PLAN:

• For Kaiser patients, women ages 35-54, we would do an email blast. The email would

contain information about the typical symptoms of a heart attack and would ask talk

about the link between diabetes, obesity and heart disease in women.

• Email would link to the video that is shown to doctors.

EXPECTED OUTCOME:

• Raise women’s health literacy in terms of the link between diabetes, obesity and heart

disease.

• Give women specific vocabulary to describe heart attack symptoms so that they can act

as their own advocates when seeking medical treatment.

 STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION PLAN: FAMILY

While one leg of the campaign will be able to empower woman to identify their own

symptoms and become advocates for their own health and care, Smith says that in many cases,

“family and other caregivers will be the primary managers of care,” (2013). To this end, we

need to be able to inform the family of the patients.

ACTION PLAN:

• Kaiser would make a commercial to be played on local television. It would highlight a

family with a woman suffering from signs of heart disease and family members just

acting normally. The point of the commercial would be to instruct the family on how to

recognize signs of a heart attack.

• Kaiser would be setting up weekly workshops on spotting heart attacks in women, basic

heart disease education, and nutritional preventative care. These workshops would take

place on a Kaiser campus and would be available to all Kaiser patients and the

community at large. We could also have representatives on site if someone would like to

sign up for Kaiser as well.

• We would make a pamphlet that outlines the same information that the commercial

gives. Bullet points will be given for easy read-ability. They will be in the waiting room

and can be offered by the doctors to women to give to their family members.

CLOSING INFORMATION

A triangular informational campaign takes the onus of a woman’s health off of the

shoulders of one target audience. This campaign will absolutely give more power to women by

giving them the vocabulary to describe, in detail, the symptoms that they are experiencing. With

one leg of the informational campaign focused on doctors, these women’s symptoms will no
longer fall on deaf ears. Focusing on the family as well, will help family members spot the early

signs of a heart attack and save the lives of the women they love so much.
 REFERENCES

Akil, L., & Ahmad, H. A. (2011). Relationships between Obesity and Cardiovascular Diseases in Four

Southern States and Colorado. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved,22(4A),

61-72. doi:10.1353/hpu.2011.0166

American Heart Association News. (2018, November 12). Heart attacks are becoming more common in

younger people, especially women. Retrieved from

https://www.heart.org/en/news/2018/11/12/heart-attacks-are-becoming-more-common-in-

younger-people-especially-women

LCOD All Females by Age Group 2015 - Women's Health - CDC. (n.d.). Retrieved January 18, 2019,

from https://www.cdc.gov/women/lcod/2015/all-females/index.htm

Lear, S. (2018, February 06). Why heart disease is often missed in women-the myth of the

'widowmaker'. Retrieved from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2018-02-heart-disease-

womenthe-myth-widowmaker.html

Smith, M. (2013, May 10). Engaging Patients, Families, and Communities. Retrieved from

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK207234/

State Briefs. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://stateofobesity.org/states/ga/

The Burden of Diabetes in Georgia. (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://www.diabetes.org/assets/pdfs/advocacy/state-fact-sheets/georgia-state-fact-sheet.pdf

United States, Georgia Medical Board. (2010, December). Frequently Asked Questions Physician

Licensure Application Process. Retrieved January 19, 2019, from

https://medicalboard.georgia.gov/sites/medicalboard.georgia.gov/files/imported/GCMB/Files/11

04 - 12-2010 - Frequently Asked Questions - Physician Licensure.pdf