Awareness, knowledge and healthy lifestyle behaviors related to coronary heart disease among women: An integrative review.

The purpose of this review is to examine recent literature on the awareness, knowledge, and healthy lifestyle behaviors related to Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) among women. Literature published in the English language from 2004 to 2015 was reviewed. Of the 684 articles retrieved, 21 were deemed relevant. Being aware that CHD is the leading cause of death in women and knowledge of the risk factors of CHD were found to be generally suboptimal in the women studied. Awareness was seen to be positively associated with healthy lifestyle behaviors, though findings on the predictive relationship of knowledge of risk factors on healthy lifestyle behaviors in women seem to be divided. Diabetes was the prominent risk factor that most women did not associate with CHD. Translating these findings into clinical practice can help health care providers be more attuned when discussing CHD with their female patients so as to provide targeted education on CHD prevention.