Women can now more easily take action to “love their hearts” and protect their heart health by using a new online interactive assessment tool – a personalized “horoscope for the heart” – created by the American Heart Association’s Go Red For Women campaign. The Go Red Heart Checkup goes live today at GoRedForWomen.org.

By entering key health numbers (including weight, blood pressure and cholesterol levels) and information about her lifestyle (such as how frequently she exercises and whether she smokes), a woman can receive a report that reveals her risk of having a heart attack or suffering from cardiovascular disease in the next 10 years. The Go Red Heart Checkup report also identifies the risk factors a woman can change and provides a personalized action plan that she can print out and discuss with her doctor. The action plan may include suggestions such as losing weight, reducing stress, stopping smoking, or managing blood pressure.

“A recent study showed that one-third of women underestimate their personal risk of heart disease, and a majority don’t know what cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar levels are healthy for them1,” said Go Red For Women spokesperson Nieca Goldberg, M.D., chief of Women’s Cardiac Care at Lenox Hill Hospital and assistant clinical professor at The New York University School of Medicine. “We created the Go Red Heart Checkup to motivate women to take action and to encourage them to open a dialogue with their doctors about their long-term heart health.”

The American Heart Association has long urged women to know their health numbers – good and bad cholesterol counts (HDL and LDL), blood pressure, fasting glucose, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference and minutes of physical activity performed per day – as well as target ranges for these categories. Until now, women had to determine for themselves whether their numbers added up to a high risk of heart disease or stroke – and then decide what to do about it. The Go Red Heart Checkup gives each woman a firsthand, personalized way to learn her risks and get useful recommendations for taking the first steps toward a heart healthy Go Red lifestyle.

Both user-friendly and comprehensive, the Go Red Heart Check takes all major risk factors for heart disease into consideration, including diabetes (which makes women two to four times likelier to die from heart disease than women without this condition) and metabolic syndrome (which the AHA defines as having any three of the following five diagnostic measures: elevated waist circumference, triglycerides, blood pressure and fasting glucose; and reduced HDL cholesterol2).

If a woman does not already know her numbers – such as blood pressure, cholesterol count and fasting glucose – she can simply download the Blood Test Approval form found on the Web site and take or fax it to her doctor to order a blood test. Once the blood test determines her numbers, she can enter them into the tool and get her personalized heart-health check.

The American Heart Association developed the Go Red Heart Checkup in association with female health care professionals, including a cardiologist, a primary care physician and a nurse practitioner. The tool also can be used in a healthcare setting. Professionals can guide women through the process, explain their results and help them put their action plan for heart healthy living into daily practice.