Description

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a leading cause of mortality worldwide and primary target for prevention. However, majority researchers concluded that it was mainly a men's disease that resulted in fewer women being informed about it. So this study was conducted to determine women's knowledge, attitude and practice on CVD in Kelantan, Malaysia. Majority of respondents were Malays with mean age of 39.9 years. Among them, 3.1% were smokers and 41.1% claimed having medical illness, the commonest was obesity (23.6%). About 87% of women knew that smoking is a risk factor. However, less than 20% knew about menopause. More than 80% knew typical symptoms whereas less than half realised atypical symptoms. Less than 20% of them knew the cholesterol risk target. Only 13% of women practiced exercise as required. The good knowledge, attitude and practice score were 55.6%, 55.1 % and 51.1% respectively. There were significant association between knowledge and attitude (r2=0.074), knowledge and practice (r2= 0.092) and attitude and practice (r2= 0.161).Hence a better structured educational programme should be reinforced as a preventive strategy to overcome this problem.