EXAMPLE 13 Heart disease in women

A highway billboard says simply, “Half of all heart disease victims are women.” What might be the agenda behind this true statement? Perhaps the billboard sponsors just want to make women aware that they do face risks from heart disease. (Surveys show that many women underestimate the risk of heart disease.)

On the other hand, perhaps the sponsors want to fight what some people see as an overemphasis on male heart disease. In that case, we might want to know that although half of heart disease victims are women, they are on the average much older than male victims. Roughly 50,000 women under age 65 and 100,000 men under age 65 die from heart disease each year. The American Heart Association says, “Risk of death due to coronary heart disease in women is roughly similar to that of men 10 years younger.”