It’s February, which means it is Heart Awareness Month, you know what that means? Probably not because we have all these months with special “awareness” spotlights but most of the time no one knows what it truly means or how important it is. Seamlessly overlooking the importance of common conditions or issues that are focused on throughout the year. However, whether or not the information is reaching the correct audiences and impacting others is questionable.
February specifically is made to highlight awareness towards pediatric heart disease and cardiac patients. With heart disease being the leading cause of death in the United States since 1950, it is important to take care of your heart and understand the importance of heart health. In 2023, the American Heart Association organized a Harris poll in which more than half (51%) of participants did not name heart disease as the country’s biggest cause of death. This is living proof that these issues are commonly ignored despite there being an entire month dedicated to “spreading awareness” on heart health. However, these months are commonly ignored, like February.
We tend to focus on the topics that “matter” in the eyes of the public. The months focused on primarily are Black History Month in February and Women’s History Month in March. Although these months are important to highlight and remember, as a whole, everyone ignores the rest of the months such as Suicide Prevention Month or Heart Awareness Month, that affect several populations in the United States. In the public eye, we only acknowledge what matters or applies to ourselves, instead of understanding what may hurt others and how important it is to be knowledgeable about it.
Therefore the question arises, “Is anyone actually aware?” Each month in the year has a condition dedicated to it, sometimes even multiple. The public can then raise further awareness on the condition that either damages the health or the quality of living to those affected. Such as Mental Health awareness month in May or Breast Cancer awareness month in October, these months are commonly overlooked, meaning the public doesn’t have as much knowledge on it as they may think.
In addition, social media commonly plays into this idea of deception with small squared posts that come out every now and then. Consumers liking or reposting content, but not actually taking everything into account or retaining the information. Social media seems to try and make an effort to point out some issues but it only appears for a short period of time and then everybody seems to forget about it. At that moment it is just raising attention to the problem, not awareness.
Raising awareness and being “aware” goes a long way in context to making a change in people’s understanding of these issues that are being overlooked. For example, with social media there could be a way to raise awareness if an individual posts a personal story, stays consistent with the content, or starts a nonprofit or campaign for the targeted effort. This can spread awareness and focus on the problems at hand, such as heart health as stated previously.
Information reaching different audiences and helping the public to understand certain issues or important events in history are crucial to understand. If these months can be focused on in a more respectful consistent manner than maybe people would truly be more aware. But at the end of the day, it’s up to the individual to choose whether or not they’re willing to learn about these issues that affect everyone you see around you.
