Heart Diseases: Women
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help improve women's heart health.
Answered by Karin Smyth
The Government is committed to prioritising women’s health, and we are delivering our commitment that never again will women’s health be neglected.
In 2023, 31% of those who died prematurely from cardiovascular disease (CVD) were women. We are committed to reducing premature mortality from heart disease and stroke by 25% in the next 10 years. To accelerate progress towards this ambition, we will publish a new CVD modern service framework in 2026. Officials and NHS England are working closely to deliver the framework and are engaging widely throughout its development.
The NHS Health Check, a core component of England’s CVD prevention programme, aims to detect people at risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and kidney disease in those aged between 40 and 74 years old. The programme prevents approximately 500 heart attacks or strokes annually and every year, approximately 770,000 women complete an NHS Health Check.
Work to improve access to the NHS Health Check programme is ongoing, including the development of a NHS Health Check Online service, which will allow women to undertake their health check at home, at a time and place convenient to them.
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