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RESE ARCH PUBLISHED IN 2015 MAY MAKE SOME HE ARTªCONSCIOUS PATIENTS HAPPY. STILL, PEOPLE DON'T KNOW A S MUCH ABOUT CARDIAC HE ALTH A S THE Y SHOULD © MAYBE THE CONCEPT OF "HE ART AGE" CAN HELP. Heart Age — A Memory Assist? IN SEPTEMBER, THE CDC promoted a metric called "heart age" as a way to raise patients' awareness of how prone they might be to cardiovascular disease. First articulated by the Framingham Heart Study in 2008, "heart age" is shorthand for cardiac risk: The higher one's heart age compared with one's true age, the higher the heart disease risk. Today, men's heart ages exceed their chronological ages by 7.8 years on average; women's by 5.4 years. Cardiology Notes BY JENNIFER WEBSTER NIFT Y NOTES Chugging co™ ee? No problem, at least where atrial fi brillation is concerned. A study of approximately 250,000 participants revealed no connection between co• ee drinking and AFib. Sitting may be linked to increased coronary artery calcifi cation burden — a 14 percent increase per hour spent on one's du• each day, according to researchers. However, fi dgeting may make a di• erence — a longitudinal study found participants who said they wiggled a lot in their chairs seemed to escape the health risks of sitting. Doctor, is sex still safe? Yes, according to a longitudinal study of 536 heart disease patients. Only 0.7 percent had sex in the hour before a heart attack, though most were sexually active. A TIME LINE OF CARDIAC RISK AWARENESS While patient knowledge about heart attack and promptness in seeking help is increasing, dangerous gaps persist. About 49.5 PERCENT of heart attack patients waited four or more hours before seeking care, with women waiting longer. Differences in delay time for women compared with men had decreased but not disappeared. Only 31 PERCENT of respondents to a survey could identify fi ve major signs of heart attack. Women were more familiar with the signs than men. However, female-centric signs such as nausea were not included in the survey. 56 PERCENT of women surveyed in a large study could identify chest pain as a sign of heart attack. Nausea was identifi ed as a sign of heart attack by 18 percent of women. A study found men and women still delayed seeking heart attack care, though for less time. Women took one hour to call 911, whereas men made the call in 45 minutes. 2000 2005 2012 2015 Sources: Medscape; American Heart Association; Circulation; Medical News Today; American Heart Journal; CDC's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey; American College of Cardiology; CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report D A T A V A U LT ❰❰❰❰❰ 1 3 M D N E W S . C O M /// M D N E W S C EN T R A L N E W YO R K ■ 2 016 1 3