Health for Every Heart
Health for Every Heart
Tracking Australia’s heart health
Goal 3: Prevent, detect, and manage risk early
Heart disease risk factors such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol can be managed if people are aware that they need to do so.1 Our vision for 2050 is that people of all ages in Australia can understand and manage their heart disease risks from an early age.
Tracking Australia’s progress towards three of the 25-year targets set out in Health for Every Heart will help us understand whether the nation is heading in the right direction to achieve Goal 3. This would mean that more people are being clinically assessed for their heart health risk and more people are managing their risks, particularly high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
Find out more about what needs to be addressed to reach Goal 3.
Goal 3: 2050 Targets
- More than 80% of the eligible population will have had their cardiovascular disease risk clinically assessed.
- 80% of the population will have controlled blood pressure.
- A 50% reduction in cholesterol rates that cause increased risk
Goal 3 indicators
We will use 10 indicators to monitor Australia’s progress towards preventing, detecting and managing risk from an early age (Goal 3).
The first data points for each indicator are summarised in the tables on this page, establishing the baseline and providing a snapshot of preventing, detecting and managing heart disease risks in Australia at the beginning of the 25-year vision.
Find out more about:
- what the baseline values can tell us about the starting point for the 25-year vision
- how these indicators help us monitor Australia’s progress towards Goal 3
- what to expect in the heart health tracker as we build more data points
Table 8. Indicators to monitor Australia’s progress towards the 2050 target: more than 80% of the eligible population will have had their cardiovascular disease risk clinically assessed.
Find out more about what the baseline values tell us
| Indicator | Indicator details | Baseline value | Baseline timepoint# | Data sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.a Uptake of Medicare Heart Health Checks | Adults 45 years and over who are eligible for a Medicare Heart Health Check and who have had one in the last year – proportion of total | 1.8%* | 2024 |
3.a — Services Australia, Medicare Statistics; ABS. Estimated Resident Population; AIHW. GEN Aged Care data. 2024. [Add table numbers here]
|
| Adults aged 45 to 54 years who have recently become eligible for a Medicare Heart Health Check and who have had one in the last year - proportion of total adults – proportion of total adults 45 to 55 years | 1.5%* | |||
| 3.b Readiness to assess cardiovascular risk | Regular patients aged 45 to 74 who have sufficient risk factors recorded in their GP record to have cardiovascular disease risk assessed – proportion of total regular patients | 56.7% | 2023-24 |
3.b —
AIHW. Practice Incentives Program Quality Improvement Measures - Data tables, Table 2, QIM 8: Proportion of regular clients aged 45 to 74 years with the necessary risk factors recorded in their GP record to enable CVD risk assessment, July 2023 to July 2024.
|
- #The timepoint refers to the reference period for the source data set and not the release date.
- “Adults” refers to people 18 years and over unless otherwise specified.
- * indicates where the value has been calculated from more than one data source. All data sources used in the calculation have been provided in the “Data source” column.
Table 9. Indicators to monitor Australia’s progress towards the 2050 target: 80% of the population will have controlled blood pressure.
Find out more about what the baseline values tell us
| Indicator | Indicator details | Baseline value | Baseline timepoint# | Data sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.c Blood pressure levels | Adults who have normal or low blood pressure - proportion of all adults | 76.7% | 2022 |
3.c — ABS. National Health Survey 2022. Table 10.1 Measured blood pressure, by age and sex.
|
| Adults 45 years and over who have normal or low blood pressure - proportion of all adults 45 years and over | 66.0% | |||
| 3.d Blood pressure awareness | Adults who reported that they did not have hypertension but were subsequently found to have high, very high or severely high blood pressure - proportion. | 74.5% | 2022 |
3.d — ABS. National Health Survey 2022. Table 5.3 Selected long-term health conditions, by health risk factors and health status.
|
| Adults who have had their blood pressure measured in the last 2 years | 69.3% | |||
| 3.e Blood pressure controlling medicines | Number of PBS-subsidised medications for controlling blood pressure that were supplied over 1 year | 66,630,663 | 2022-23 |
3.e —
AIHW. Heart, stroke and vascular disease: Australian facts. 2024. Table 7: Emergency Department presentations with principal diagnosis of Cardiovascular disease, by population group and sex, 2022–23.
|
| 3.f Burden of heart disease and stroke - high blood pressure | Burden of coronary heart disease and stroke due to high blood pressure (DALYs) | 172,350 | 2024 |
3.f —AIHW. Australian Burden of Disease Study 2024. Table S8. Number and percent of linked disease burden (YLL, YLD, DALY) in Australia due to each risk factor, by sex and year.
|
- #The timepoint refers to the reference period for the source data set and not the release date.
- “Adults” refers to people 18 years and over unless otherwise specified.
Table 10. Indicators to monitor Australia’s progress towards the 2050 target: 50% reduction in cholesterol levels that cause increased risk.
Find out more about what the baseline values tell us
| Indicator | Indicator details | Baseline value | Baseline timepoint# | Data sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.g Cholesterol levels | Adults who reported abnormal levels of LDL cholesterol – proportion of all adults | 27.8% | 2022–24 |
3.g — ABS. National Health Measures Survey 2022. Table 3.1 Chronic disease biomarkers, by age and sex.
|
| Adults aged 45 years and over who reported abnormal levels of LDL cholesterol – proportion of all adults. | 32.8% | |||
| 3.h Cholesterol awareness | Adults who reported that they did not have high cholesterol but were subsequently found to have abnormal LDL cholesterol – proportion of all adults. | 90.9% | 2022–24 |
3.h — ABS. National Health Measures Survey 2022. Table 16.3 Chronic disease biomarkers, by selected self-reported conditions — Persons 18 years and over.
|
| 3.j Cholesterol-lowering medicines | Number of PBS-subsidised medications for lowering cholesterol that were supplied over 1 year | 38,275,897 | 2022-23 |
3.j — AIHW. Heart, stroke and vascular disease: Australian facts. 2024. Table 7: Emergency Department presentations with principal diagnosis of Cardiovascular disease, by population group and sex, 2022–23.
|
| 3.k Burden of heart disease and stroke disease - high cholesterol | Burden of disease for coronary heart disease and stroke due to high cholesterol (DALYs) | 132,104 | 2024 |
3.k —
AIHW. Australian Burden of Disease Study 2024. Table S8. Number and percent of linked disease burden (YLL, YLD, DALY) in Australia due to each risk factor, by sex and year.
|
- #The timepoint refers to the reference period for the source data set and not the release date.
- “Adults” refers to people 18 years and over unless otherwise specified.
Abbreviations
ABS – Australian Bureau of Statistics
AIHW – Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
DALY – disability adjusted life year
GP – general practitioner
LDL – low density lipoprotein
MBS – Medicare Benefits Schedule
PBS – Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme
Technical notes
Data availability and completeness
In some areas of heart health, data development will be needed to improve the indicators and the way we track some of the Health for Every Heart targets.
Data sources for Goal 3 indicators
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
- Practice Incentives Program Quality Improvement Measures - Data tables, Table 2, QIM 8: Proportion of regular clients aged 45 to 74 years with the necessary risk factors recorded in their GP record to enable CVD risk assessment, July 2023 to July 2024.
- Heart, stroke and vascular diseases report. 2024, Table 4. total cardiovascular system medications, total persons. Analysis of Australian Bureau of Statistics detailed microdata, Microdata and Tablebuilder: National Health Survey, 2017–18.
- Australian Burden of Disease Study 2024. Table S8. Number and percent of linked disease burden (YLL, YLD, DALY) in Australia due to each risk factor, by sex and year.
- GEN Aged Care data. People using aged care services CURF data, 30 June 2023.
Australian Bureau of Statistics
- National Health Survey 2022.
- Table 5.3 Selected long-term health conditions, by health risk factors and health status.
- Table 10.1 Measured blood pressure, by age and sex.
- National Health Measures Survey 2022-24.
- Table 3.1 Chronic disease biomarkers, by age and sex.
Table 16.3 Chronic disease biomarkers, by selected self-reported conditions — Persons 18 years and over.
Services Australia
- Medicare Benefits Schedule item reports. Heart Health Checks are supported by Medicare through MBS item numbers 699 and 177.
Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme item reports.
Blood pressure control medications include ATC level 2 classes C02, C03, C07, C08, C09
Cholesterol lowering medications include ATC level 2 class C10
- Quarterly Population Estimates (ERP), by State/Territory, Sex and Age. Data Explorer, reference year-Q2, Estimated Residential Population per reference age group.
References
- Australian Bureau of Statistics. National Health Survey 2022.
Goal 2: Create environments and systems that enable healthy behaviours
Goal 4: Manage heart disease effectively and prevent further events