Awareness, knowledge, and perception of heart disease among adolescents

Perceptions of cardiovascular risk among adolescents have not been studied recently. The rise in unattended risk factors and the obesity pandemic have created calculable cardiovascular disease risk in the adolescent population.

We sought to assess the awareness, level of knowledge, and perception of cardiovascular disease in an adolescent population.

We administered a survey designed to collect data on demographics, beliefs regarding risk factor importance, perceived future risk and other knowledge-based assessment questions about cardiovascular disease.

Students, n=873, (45.4% male, mean age 15.6 years) in grades 9-12, from four Michigan high schools completed the survey unassisted. Accidents were rated as the greatest perceived lifetime health risk (39.1%). A minority (16.6%) of respondents selected cardiovascular disease as the greatest lifetime risk placing it behind accidents and cancer. When asked to identify the greatest cause of death for each sex, 42.3% of respondents correctly recognized cardiovascular disease for men and 14.0% correctly recognized cardiovascular disease for women in the United States, P<0.0001. Forty percent of respondents incorrectly chose a substance abuse/use behavior, other than cigarettes, as the most important cardiovascular disease risk behavior.

Our findings suggest that adolescents lack knowledge regarding the risk of cardiovascular disease and do not perceive themselves at risk for cardiovascular disease. These data will be useful in designing future preventive strategies and interventions aimed at this target population.