Invisible women? The importance of gender in lay beliefs about heart problems

Coronary heart disease (CHD) accounts for over a quarter of deaths in Brita in, yet few qualitative studies have explored beliefs about 'heart problems ' in the general population. A previous study of lay beliefs about coronary candidacy (or 'the kind of person who gets heart trouble') paid little att ention to gender. However, semi-structured interviews with 61 men and women reveal that gender plays a vital role in lay perceptions. Respondents' acc ounts of people who were likely 'candidates' for heart problems all centred on men. More surprisingly, their accounts of unlikely candidates also focu sed exclusively on men. Only when specifically asked about relatives, did r espondents discuss women with heart problems. While accounts of male 'victi ms' focused on sudden, fatal heart attacks, accounts of women usually conce ntrated on long-term CHD morbidity. We argue that CHD continues to be perce ived as a male disease and that women remain 'invisible' in discourses abou t heart disease.