ts (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 1999). An alarming report mentioned in the article this paper is based on “The 1992 National Health Intervention Survey Cancer Control Supplement” determined that most Americans did not know about the “major risk factors for common cancers and lacked knowledge regarding survival rates following early detection” (Breslow et. al., 1997).For example, close to two thirds of Americans did not know that age increased one’s risk for breast and colon cancer, and more than one half believed that the chance of survival following the early detection of colon cancer was fair or poor. Furthermore, the belief that age was a risk factor for breast and colon cancer actually decreased with increasing age among women.Heart disease is the number one cause of deaths for both men and women alike (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 1999). The population's general knowledge of CHD risk factors has gone up in recent time. In this day and age more people are aware of CHD risk factors than ever before, but there are some sections of the population that are still not as informed as they should be. These sections of the population are those individuals who tend to be “less educated” and are “ethnically diverse." (Davis, Winkleby, and Farquhar, 1995; Smith, Croft, Heath, and Cokkindes, 1996). There has, in recent years been a reduction in deaths attributable to cardiovascular disease in the United States. Women, African-American women specifically are still more likely to die from CHD as opposed to men. (American Heart Association, 1997.)Studies have been conducted on the knowledge and perceived risk factors but they have focused mostly on one specific disease and not on information relevant to women specifically. There are not a lot of studies that have been done to determine the knowledge and perceived risks women may have about their chances of developi...
