Aortic valve stenosis: what do people know? A heart valve disease awareness survey of over 8,800 people aged 60 or over

Aims: Little is known about the level of public knowledge and concern towards aortic valve disease. Therefore, a survey was conducted to evaluate the awareness of the general population regarding different diseases with special emphasis on aortic stenosis (AS). Methods and results: A total of 8,860 people aged 60 years or older in nine European countries took part in the survey. Cancer was the disease that respondents were most concerned about (27.5%), while only 1.7% were most concerned about heart valve disease. Seventeen percent (17%) of survey participants claimed to be familiar with heart valve disease, yet only 7% could correctly identify AS; 44.3% of respondents knew the correct number of valves in the human heart. After providing some general information about AS, 41.1% of respondents then said they were more concerned about the condition; 4.5% even recognised the symptoms in themselves. Over half of the respondents (54.2%) claimed that their general practitioners only rarely or never use the stethoscope to check their heart, which may eventually lead to an underdiagnosis of AS. Conclusions: Despite its high prevalence, high morbidity and mortality, as well as good treatment options, the vast majority of respondents were neither concerned nor fully aware of AS.