Survey By Leading U.S. Hospital Cleveland Clinic Shows Need To Prioritize Heart Health Awareness In GCC

Leading heart physicians at U.S.-based Cleveland Clinic say there is a clear need for greater heart attack awareness in GCC, after a survey found many residents identified stroke symptoms of as those of a heart attack, and most could not identify a correct first response to a heart attack.

Heart disease is the No. 1 cause of death around the world. The survey was conducted as part of Cleveland Clinic’s “Love your Heart” consumer education campaign. Cleveland Clinic has been ranked America’s No. 1 hospital for cardiology and cardiac surgery for 23 years in a row by US News & World Report.

Most people could identify two symptoms – “pressure, squeezing, fullness or pain in the center of your chest” and “shortness of breath” – as symptoms of a heart attack. Only in two countries did more than 70 percent correctly identify pain in the chest – Bahrain with 74 percent and Oman with 73 percent.

“The first symptoms of having a heart attack is chest pain, shortness of breath, most of the time there is pain in the upper left arm, back pain, nausea, and also one of the first symptoms is sweating,” said Maan Fares, M.D., cardiologist and vice chairman of global patient services at Cleveland Clinic.

In Saudi Arabia, 52 percent of people, or about half of those surveyed, correctly recognized this as a symptom, and only 49 percent of men. The results for other countries were 62 percent in Kuwait and 64 percent in the UAE. Those correctly identifying shortness of breath as a symptom ranged from 48 percent in Oman to 64 percent in Bahrain.

When asked to identify heart attack symptoms, a significant number instead chose stroke symptoms, including around 40 percent across the region who selected “sudden numbness or weakness of face, arm or leg” and around 20 percent who selected “slurred speech,” both of which are symptoms of a stroke.