Heart health will be achievable by everyone in Australia by 2050
Goal 3: Prevent, detect, and manage risk early
Goal 3: Prevent, detect, and manage risk early
Heart disease is Australia’s leading cause of death and yet we do not routinely screen for nor effectively manage risk.
Risk of heart disease often goes unnoticed by people and health professionals. Promising work to further improve the prediction of individual risk is underway and Medicare Heart Health Checks are available for people aged 45-79 years.14 We nonetheless need better risk prediction tools that reflect the needs of the Australian population, and mechanisms to identify and address risk before the age at which Heart Health Checks are available.
Focus efforts across the life course - we need to normalise heart health and encourage it at all ages.
We need to ensure the importance of heart health is understood from an early age and enable older people living with heart disease and other co-morbidities to live well.
- High blood pressure and high cholesterol are leading risk factors for heart disease but are not routinely measured or managed early in life.
- Build-up of fatty plaque deposits in coronary arteries begins in childhood and is associated with the same heart disease risk factors that are well established in adults.15
- Point-of-care and homebased technologies can help detect risk factors early, but are not widely used, nor available to everyone.16
Actions
3.1 Take action to identify and manage heart disease risk from an early age
Develop education and health programs aimed at younger people and their caregivers that address early precursors of heart disease and help them identify and manage heart disease risk.
3.2 Improve awareness and management of heart health risk factors across the life course
Develop tools and programs to embed awareness and management of heart health risk factors across the life course.
3.3 Develop equitable risk prediction and management methods
Develop and implement equitable methods to predict and manage heart disease risk for all people in Australia, regardless of their location or circumstances.
3.4 Improve access to diagnostic, monitoring, and treatment tools
Improve access to evidence-based point-of-care and home-based diagnostic tools, particularly for communities far from medical and pharmacy services.
Goal 2: Create environments and systems that enable healthy behaviours
Goal 4: Manage heart disease effectively and prevent further events