Half of men in the dark on heart attacks, new study finds

A new study has found nearly 50 per cent of men in Australia over the age of 35 wouldn’t be able to recognise the early symptoms of a heart attack.

One in five participants revealed they had experienced symptoms of cardiac stress in the past year.

Nearly half of all Australian men over the age of 35 are not confident in their ability to identify heart attack symptoms, and only a quarter of those who do exhibit symptoms seek help.

The findings, in a study from the Royal Australian College of Physicians, comes in the wake of the deaths of cricket great Shane Warne and Labor senator Kimberley Kitching.

The study highlights the particular risk posed to over-35s undertaking regular strenuous exercise, focusing on findings collected from 153 football players aged 40 to 44. One in five participants revealed they had experienced symptoms of cardiac stress in the past year.

However, only 24 per cent of those with symptoms had sought medical advice, with 49 per cent noting that in the event of experiencing chest pain, they would play on for another 5-10 minutes to see if it went away.

A mere 39.9 per cent were aware symptoms could appear in the days leading up to the incident. “Although regular exercise improves health, strenuous exercise causes a transient increase in cardiac risk,” senior author of the paper, Geoffrey Tofler, said.