Many Self-Managing High Cholesterol Diagnosis

JERSEY CITY, N.J., Sept. 30 /PRNewswire/ — With national cholesterol awareness month drawing to a close, a new survey by leading health website QualityHealth.com shows that Americans are making efforts to properly manage their cholesterol. The survey, the eighth in QualityHealth.com's HealthOpin survey series, shows 65 percent of Americans are checking their cholesterol levels within the recommended American Heart Association time frame of once every five years.

The survey, which polled 10,023 Americans, primarily women, shows 15 percent of survey respondents have their cholesterol levels checked several times a year, 33 percent have their levels checked once a year, 11 percent have their levels checked once every two to four years, six percent once every five years and 35 percent never have their levels checked.

Of those recently diagnosed with high cholesterol (22 percent), 70 percent said they filled the prescription their doctor gave them for a cholesterol lowering drug. 88 percent of this group said they are taking some kind of action on their own to lower their levels with 27 percent eating a low fat diet, 22 percent starting an exercise program or exercising more, 22 percent eating oat-based products like Cheerios(R), 15 percent taking herbal remedies such as flax seed oil, fish oil or garlic extract, four percent drinking red wine and ten percent are engaging in "other" methods.

"It's great news that Americans are paying such close attention to their cholesterol levels," said Peter Burch, marketing and sales SVP for QualityHealth.com. "Websites like QualityHealth.com can make it easier for individuals to find information on cholesterol management and learn the right questions to ask their doctor concerning their high cholesterol diagnosis."

The survey also showed that although Americans are checking their cholesterol enough, many have a low level of understanding of their LDL, HDL and triglyceride levels. Only 26 percent of survey respondents said they know their LDL (bad) cholesterol levels, 26 percent said they know their HDL (good) cholesterol levels and only 22 percent said they know their triglyceride levels.

As the eighth installment in its "HealthOpin" poll series, QualityHealth.com polled its database of registered members between September 6 and September 10, 2008, collecting responses from 10,023 consumers interested in health matters. Survey respondents were 87 percent female and 13 percent male, with the majority between the ages of 35 and 54. The survey's margin of error is +/- 3 percent.

About Marketing Technology Solutions

Marketing Technology Solutions (MTS), is a media and technology company specializing in servicing health consumers and advertisers through proprietary algorithms that simultaneously personalize health content and target advertising based on a unique healthographic(TM) consumer profile. Healthographics(TM) are a proprietary combination of demographic and (age, gender, address) and consumers physical and emotional health profile. Our healthographic profile has upward of 250 individual data points. MTS specializes in connecting clients' brands with health-conscious consumers through data-driven patient education, targeted customer acquisition, syndicated research, and permission-based interactive marketing. MTS gains consumer insights through its network of Web sites, QualityHealth.com, Healthpages.com and Nubella.com, whose 10 million members rely on the sites for health and wellness news, tips, tools, support groups, and patient education.

According to August 2008 comScore, Inc., the global leader of measurement in the digital world, QualityHealth.com, with approximately 6.4 million unique visitors per month, ranks 9th among the most visited health sites on the Web.

SOURCE Marketing Technology Solutions

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