Coronary heart disease prevention: views on women's gender-based perceptions and meanings.

The construct of gender is typically differentiated from that of sex on the basis that it is socioculturally created rather than biophysically endowed. There has been some investigation regarding the relationship of gender to coronary heart disease prevention and risk factor management. However, mechanisms underlying the influence of gender on these important outcomes have not yet been fully examined or explained. There is a complex interplay among and between the sociocultural environments in which women live and the biophysical outcomes they experience. Funding agencies need to advance a research agenda aimed at prospectively examining the issues surrounding gender and development of coronary heart disease, as well as developing and testing practical and sustainable gender-specific interventions.