Survey finds Singapore women think cancer is No. 1 killer disease

1 February 2007

Channel NewsAsia

SINGAPORE: A local survey has found that three in five women in Singapore think cancer is the Number One killer when in fact, heart attack and stroke are the leading causes of death in women worldwide.

To raise awareness on heart health, the Singapore Heart Foundation is literally painting the town red.

City Hall will "Go Red for Women" for the next four months in a bid to raise the red alert among Singapore women.

The move comes after the survey found that only 8 percent of women here are aware that heart attack and stroke top the list of causes of death in women around the world.

This is the Singapore Heart Foundation's first local survey with 1,136 women, aged 21 to 64, on the heart-health of Singapore women.

One quarter of the women surveyed thought there was little they could do to prevent heart attack, while 41 percent thought their risk of a heart attack were low for women their age.

Breast cancer kills one in 23 women, while heart attack and stroke kill one in three women.

Dr Goh Ping Ping, Senior Cardiologist, Go Red for Women Ambassador, said: "This is certainly not to underestimate the risk of cancers, but we feel that there may be some bias in terms of how women perceive certain types of cancer, especially breast cancer, as being very personal. So they may be rather preoccupied with that and underestimate the seriousness of other health conditions."

To raise awareness that heart attack and stroke are not predominantly male diseases, and are actually very preventable, several female Members of Parliament and other women have been roped in.

Anisa Hassan, Go Red for Women Ambassador, Managing Director of It's Just Lunch, and Winner of Malay Women Entrepreneur Award 2006, said: "Because I work in an all-female environment, one of the things we've been discussing in the office is the level of inactivity! We work very long hours and we do not have enough exercise to get ourselves active.

"So what I plan to do, as an ambassador for the Go Red campaign, is to encourage everybody in my office to take part in the Heart Walk coming up in March to get ourselves out of inactivity to doing something together."

The 4-month campaign focuses on avoiding risk factors of heart attack and stroke, which include high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, smoking and obesity. - CNA/so