• Yoshimi Fukuoka, Nadra E Lisha, and Eric Vittinghoff.
• 1 Department of Physiological Nursing, Institute for Health & Aging, School of Nursing, University of California , San Francisco, San Francisco, California.
• J Womens Health (Larchmt). 2017 Sep 1; 26 (9): 1012-1019.

ObjectiveThe aim of the study was to compare knowledge and awareness of heart attacks/heart disease and perceived risk for future heart attack in Asian/Pacific Islander women, compared to other racial and ethnic groups.Materials And MethodsIn this cross-sectional study, 318 women enrolled in a mobile phone-based physical activity education trial were analyzed. Heart attack knowledge, self-efficacy for recognizing and responding to heart attack symptoms, and perceived risk for a future heart attack were measured. Analyses were conducted using logistic, proportional odds, and linear regression models, depending on the outcome and adjusting for age. Pairwise differences between Asian/Pacific Islanders and the other four groups were assessed using a Bonferroni correction (p < 0.0125).ResultsAsian/Pacific Islander women had significantly lower total scores for knowledge of heart attack and self-efficacy for heart attack recognition and care seeking behavior compared to the Caucasian women (p = 0.001 and p = 0.002, respectively). However, perceived risk did not differ among the groups. Forty-six percent of the Asian American women, compared to 25% of Caucasian women, falsely believed "breast cancer is the number one cause of death for women (p = 0.002)." In addition, Asian/Pacific Islander women were less likely to report "arm pain, numbness, tingling, or radiating" as one of the heart attack symptoms compared to the Caucasian and the multiracial group (34%, 63% [p < 0.001], and 66% [p = 0.004], respectively).ConclusionsThese findings highlight the urgent need to develop effective, tailored campaigns to close the knowledge gap between Asian/Pacific Islander women and Caucasian women.

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