Stroke Advocacy for Women Strokes

Stroke Advocacy for Women

Strokes are a major cause of death and serious injury among women, but awareness of the problem is a significant problem. For example, while stroke kills twice as many women as breast cancer every year, women believe breast cancer to be a much more serious health problem (National Stroke Association, 2012). In fact, stroke is one of the most serious health problems impacting women; 425,000 women suffer from stroke each year, 55,000 more than men (National Stroke Association, 2012). Moreover, African-American women suffer a significantly higher number of strokes than Caucasian women and stroke is a leading cause of death among Hispanic women (National Stroke Association, 2012).

Despite stroke being such a serious health issue for women, women are alarmingly unaware of important information about strokes. Only 27% of women are even able to name more than two of the six primary stroke symptoms (National Stroke Association, 2012). The primary signs of stroke are sudden: numbness or weakness in face or limbs, trouble seeing, trouble walking/loss of balance, confusion, or severe headache (U.S.D.H.H.S., 2009). The unique signs of stroke in women include sudden: face, arm, or leg pain, hiccups, nausea, tiredness, chest pain, shortness of breath, or racing heartbeat (U.S.D.H.H.S., 2009). Seventy percent of women are unaware that women are at a greater risk of stroke than men (National Stroke Association, 2012). African-American women and Hispanic women are even less likely than Caucasian women to correctly identify the causes and symptoms of stroke, despite the high risk in both communities (National Stroke Association, 2012).

Stroke advocacy is critical because strokes are largely preventable, and early intervention during a stroke can make a critical difference in outcome for the patient. However, it is clear that American women simply do not have the knowledge that they need to have about strokes. This problem is magnified in the African-American and other minority communities. One of the problems is that women, in general, frequently fail to obtain adequate healthcare for themselves. This problem is magnified among people in lower socio-economic groups, many times because they simply cannot afford medical care. The general exception to that rule is that women are likely to see gynecologists/obstetricians. The fact that certain strains of HPV may be linked to stroke makes this connection an even more critical one, since ob/gyns are the doctors most likely to provide HPV screening and treatment. Moreover, women are likely to visit pediatricians for child healthcare. Therefore, the health initiative that should be instituted is that ob/gyns should be involved in stroke symptom screening and education with every patient at every visit. Furthermore, pediatricians should engage in screening and education for parents, because maternal health is a critical component of child health.