Perception, knowledge, and preventive behaviors on cardiovascular disease among argentine women

Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) poses a major health problem for women in the world. Despite 30% of women dying from cardiovascular causes, in the country, data on the per-ception of this problem in the female population is scarce.Objective: To identify the perception of women in Argentina on knowledge of CVD and pre-ventive behaviors, level of awareness of their own risk, and risk factors unique to women.Method: In March 2020, a web survey was conducted on a sample of women from 5 Argen-tine cities.Results: The results obtained from 1500 women surveyed showed that cancer was perceived as the main health problem, while violent death was identified as the leading cause of death. Only 11% identified cardiovascular disease as their main health problem and 16% as their leading cause of death. The proportion of women who have knowledge on cardiovascular risk factors was 96%, symptoms of the disease 75%, and preventive behaviors 98%. However, specially the younger ones underestimate this disease, feeling more threatened by violent death-homicide and cancer. The results also show that the main source of information was social networks and the internet, not medical advice.Conclusions: In this sample of women in Argentina, they do not perceive cardiovascular di-sease as their main cause of disease and death. The work to increase their perception of the risk could result in a decrease in the morbidity and mortality that this disease entails, thus improving their quality and life expectancy.