American Heart Association-Western States

Description

For the first time, the American Heart Association has defined poor, intermediate and ideal cardiovascular health -- using seven easy-to-understand measures.

This new definition, focusing on health factors and lifestyle behaviors, comes when an association survey finds that nearly four in 10 American adults (39 percent) think they have ideal heart health; yet 54 percent of those said a health professional had told them they had a risk factor for heart disease and/or needed to make a lifestyle change to improve their heart health.

Armed with these findings, the American Heart Association has launched a national goal to not only reduce deaths from cardiovascular diseases and stroke but also to improve the cardiovascular health of Americans.