Study: Women unaware of many health facts

TORONTO, Nov. 14 (UPI) -- Seventy-three percent of Canadian women say they are aware of women's health issues, but a survey indicates they are not as knowledgeable as they think.

Women's College Hospital X-Effects Health Index found that although the biggest rise in type 2 diabetes is among women 20 to 50, 48 percent of women believe men and women are experiencing the same increase in occurrence of the disease.

Just 36 percent are aware that sudden pain in the chest, arm, neck, jaw or back are not always the most common symptoms of a woman suffering a heart attack. Nearly half say they did not know more women than men suffer from arthritis.

Sixty-one percent of women are unaware that the number of men and women who experience depression in their lifetime is not the same -- in fact, research indicates women are twice as likely as men to experience depression.

One-third mistakenly believe that men and women who smoke develop lung cancer at the same rate -- in fact, women are 1.5 times more likely than men to develop lung cancer, and women who never smoked are more likely to develop lung cancer than men who have never smoked.

Leger Marketing conducted the national online survey of 800 Canadian adult women between Aug. 21 and Aug. 28. The survey has a margin of error of plus-minus 3.5 percent.