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.
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.
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.
Develop tools and programs to embed awareness and management of heart health risk factors across the life course.
Develop and implement equitable methods to predict and manage heart disease risk for all people in Australia, regardless of their location or circumstances.
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