A new report on Australia’s heart health, to be released today, tackles the worrying prevalence of high cholesterol in Australia, a major risk factor for heart attack which is estimated to affect 6, 5 million adult Australians.
The website Blockages and Solutions for Cholesterol was developed by the Heart Foundation in collaboration with the World Heart Federation and a panel of Australian healthcare experts.
It makes a number of important recommendations that will require the combined efforts of patients, general practitioners, the cardiovascular industry, and federal and state/territory governments to implement in the years to come.
If implemented, these recommendations will lower the cholesterol levels of the many Australian adults who suffer from high cholesterol, helping to prevent thousands of potential and unnecessary heart attacks and strokes.
The report’s recommendations include:
- Primary prevention (people without heart disease):
- National heart disease screening program, incorporating existing heart health checkups, that encourages those at risk to have their cholesterol and heart health checked.
- An integrated cholesterol awareness campaign aimed at people as young as 18 to start taking action to protect and control their heart.
- Support for healthcare professionals to promote a consistent, best-practice approach to cholesterol management.
- Secondary prevention (people with heart disease):
- A more integrated and streamlined cardiac healthcare system across hospital, primary care, paramedics and cardiologists to streamline patient care.
- A standard package of care for people leaving hospital following a heart attack.
- Digital cardiac rehab programs that empower patients, no matter where they live, to recover from a heart attack or angina.
- Support for people with hereditary (familial) hypercholesterolemia.
- It is estimated that 100,000 Australians are affected by this problem. Much remains to be done to better engage and support these patients, including reviewing the existing evidence to develop a specific screening program.
Connection to existing heart health checkups
The report and its recommendations come as Medicare-subsidized heart health checks – which almost 350,000 Australians have subscribed to since 2019 and which include a cholesterol test – are due to expire at the end of June 2023, leaving Australians at risk of heart disease.
The Heart Foundation notes that more Australians than ever are turning to heart checkups, with the latest data released by Medicare showing that in August 2022 a record 14,898 people visited their GP for a heart checkup.
This number would increase even more significantly if the national screening program recommended by the report were in effect. A genuine screening program would proactively call Australians at risk of heart disease for screening. Currently, the onus is on Australians to ask.
Overview of Australia’s cholesterol crisis:
- High cholesterol is the main risk factor for heart attack in Australia. It is estimated to affect 6.5 million adults, or one third of our adult population.
- People with high cholesterol may not be aware of the problem because they don’t have obvious symptoms.
- In fact, this problem is so widespread that cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins are the most prescribed drugs by volume in Australia under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. Despite this, among people hospitalized for a heart attack or angina (chest pain), nearly half still have cholesterol levels above recommendations 12 months later.
- Although cholesterol is naturally used by your body to produce hormones and digest fats, excess cholesterol can build up on artery walls as plaque, eventually blocking blood flow and causing a heart attack.
- Along with high blood pressure, age, poor diet, physical inactivity, and family history, high cholesterol is one of the major risk factors for heart disease.
- Heart disease is already the leading cause of death in Australia. Every day, heart disease causes more than 440 hospitalizations and 45 deaths.
We estimate that millions of Australians may not be aware that they have high cholesterol and therefore an increased risk of heart attack in years to come. Thanks to the participants in our roundtable, the Heart Foundation has identified the key barriers and solutions that Australians, the healthcare sector and governments need to work on if we are to reduce the devastating burden of high cholesterol on lives. Australians and our health care system. »
Erin Bowen, National Director of Health Research and Innovation, Heart Foundation.
Table by state and territory:
| STATE/TERRITORY | Number of people estimated to have high cholesterol (18+) |
|---|---|
| Victoria | 1,704,381 |
| New South Wales | 2,041,424 |
| Queensland | 1,242,316 |
| South Australia | 500,813 |
| Western Australia | 736,400 |
| Tasmania | 178,492 |
| ACT | 112,266 |
| North territory | 55,755 |
| NATIONAL | 6,573,029 |
NOTE: Australia’s adult population as of June 30, 2021 (latest data with age groups): 20,039,723. 32.8% of adults over 18 have high cholesterol (2011-12 levels): an estimated 6,573,029 Australians over 18 will have high cholesterol in 2021.