Join In National Wear Red Day for Women's Heart Health

This year, the American Heart Association, or AHA, projects that millions of Americans -- women and men -- will be wearing red on Feb. 2 in observance of AHA's National Wear Red Day. The day is part of the annual Go Red for Women campaign, which the Academy has supported for several years as a way to encourage women to protect their heart health.

According to the AHA, cardiovascular disease, or CVD, is the number one killer of women in the United States, with more than 480,000 women dying from it each year -- about one every minute. Yet only 13 percent of American women view heart disease as a health threat.

The Go Red for Women campaign, which includes a comprehensive Web site, offers clinicians help in getting that all-important CVD prevention message across to women. And National Wear Red Day is a fitting way to start off the month of February, which is designated as American Heart Month.

Patient education materials, including a compelling poster and a special report from the AHA titled "Women & Heart Disease" (PDF file: 8 pages / 974 KB. More about PDFs.), as well as preprinted physician appointment cards and other resources, are available online for health professionals to download and use to raise public awareness of this under-recognized public health issue.