Cardiac Prevention

Southcoast's Cardiac Prevention Program helps members of the community lower their risk for heart disease.

The program provides individualized screening for risk factors, which includes a questionnaire along with cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar screenings. The team also provides extensive education on cardiac risk factors.

Prevention efforts focus on promoting education, lifestyle changes and risk factor modification, and reach residents at local schools, workplaces, churches and many other sites in our communities.

Our program is staffed with a comprehensive health team that includes:

• A full time registered nurse trained in risk factor assessments including Body Mass Index (BMI), cholesterol, lipids, tobacco abuse, hypertension, diabetes, stress, obesity and obtaining family history.
• A full-time registered dietician who performs BMI, cholesterol and lipid screening as well as dietary instruction.

Since its inception, the team has screened close to 50,000 South Coast residents, performing more than 100,000 screening procedures.

In an effort to combat childhood obesity, the Cardiac Prevention team has been actively involved in screening and education to middle and primary schools in our region. Team members also provide expertise to Wellness Councils at a number of local school systems.

Read a Q&A with the Southcoast Cardiac Prevention Program team

Visit our Take a Step page for 100+ heart healthy tips

Preventing heart disease

• Don't smoke — more than half of the heart attacks in women under the age of 50 are related to smoking.

• Control your blood pressure.

• Control your cholesterol level.

• Maintain a healthy weight.

• Exercise regularly — 70 percent of American women don't get regular exercise.

• Take this women's heart disease risk quiz.