Prevalence of Coronary Heart Disease in Australia

The assignment provides an overview of the prevalence and burden of coronary heart disease (CHD) in Australia, highlighting differences between indigenous and non-indigenous populations. It also examines health policies and strategies implemented to reduce the burden of CHD, including the 'Getting Australia's Health on Track' strategy.

Running head: NURS329
NURS329
Name of the student:
Name of the University:
Author’s note

1NURS329
Prevalence of coronary heart disease for Australian population:
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a major disease burden worldwide as it is the number
one cause of mortality. CVD is also a major health problem in Australia as 4.2 million people are
living with CVD in Australia. Coronary heart disease (CHD) is also one type of CVD and the
most recent statistics for Australia in 2015 shows that around 1.2 millions Australians are
affected by CHD. It is leading cause of death in Australia and the in the year 2015, it was
responsible for almost 12% of all deaths. The prevalence and burden of CHD in Australia is also
understood from the fact that CHD kills one Australian every 27 minutes (aihw.gov.au,
2018). Due to the increase in prevalence of CHD, national consensus meeting was held to
improve approach to secondary prevention of the disease (Redfern & Chow, 2013).
The above statistics is for total Australian population, however difference is found in the
patterns and prevalence of CHD in indigenous and non-indigenous Australians. For instance,
CHD progresses faster in indigenous Australians compared to non-indigenous Australians. The
mortality rate for CHD is higher in indigenous people compared to non-indigenous Australians.
In the year 2012-2013, 2.4 times highest hospitalization rate for CHD was found for indigenous
Australians compared to non-indigenous population (aihw.gov.au, 2013). Hence, the indigenous
population of Australia is twice likely to die from CHD compared to rest of the population.
Burden of coronary heart disease for Australian population:
The burden of any chronic disease is understood by the impact of the disease on
disability-adjusted life years (DALY) or Years of Life Lost (YLL). DALY or YLL are two
important metrics to quantify burden of any disease. One DALY means loss of one healthy life
years and it is the sum of YLL due to premature mortality and years lost due to disability for

2NURS329
living with the consequence of the disease. According to this perspective, CVD disease like
CHD accounted for 25.8% of disease burden based on YLL. This also means it is second leading
burden of disease in Australia compared to cancer. Years of life were lost mainly due to risk
factor of high BMI, high blood pressure, physical inactivity, high cholesterol and high fasting
plasma glucose (heartfoundation.org.au, 2010). .
Health policies or health strategies to address the prevalence or coronary heart disease
Several strategies have been implemented in Australia to reduce the burden of CHD.
Health policies and health strategies have mainly addressed risk factors, salt consumption,
dietary control and preventing weigh gain in people. As disease like CHD has increased the cost
burden of disease too, prevention of CVD is an important national priority in Australia. One such
strategy include the ‘Getting Australia’s Health on Track’ strategy implemented in 2016, which
prioritized policy actions for a healthier Australia. The strategy prioritized 10 policy actions for a
healthier Australia by 2025, after considering the statistics that one third of chronic disease can
be prevented by addressing risk factors of the disease (Lindberg et al., 2016). Hence, the above
mentioned strategy aimed to address 10 risk factors such as obesity, diabetes, smoking, physical
inactivity, harmful use of alcohol, employment gap, salt intake and high blood pressure. This
strategy is effective as it favor monitoring of health of all population and implementing
appropriate programs to reduce risk of CHD. Ramsden et al. (2013) also showed that importance
of risk reduction strategies by showing that advice regarding dietary guidelines can reduce risk of
CHD.

3NURS329
References:
aihw.gov.au (2013). Coronary heart disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in
Indigenous Australians Retrieved 13 March 2018, from
https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/indigenous-australians/coronary-heart-disease-and-
chronic-obstructive-pul/contents/summary
aihw.gov.au (2018). Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Retrieved 14 March 2018, from
https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports-statistics/health-conditions-disability-deaths/heart-
stroke-vascular-diseases/overview
heartfoundation.org.au (2010). Burden of disease fact sheet. The Heart Foundation. Retrieved 13
March 2018, from https://www.heartfoundation.org.au/about-us/what-we-do/heart-
disease-in-australia/burden-of-disease-fact-sheet
heartfoundation.org.au (2015). Heart disease in Australia. The Heart Foundation. Retrieved 13
March 2018, from https://www.heartfoundation.org.au/about-us/what-we-do/heart-
disease-in-australia
Lindberg, R., Fetherston, H., Calder, R., McNamara, K., Knight, A., Livingston, M., ... &
Grimes, C. (2016). Getting Australia’s Health on Track, Available at:
http://vuir.vu.edu.au/32486/1/Getting%20Australia's%20Health%20on%20Track
%202016.pdf
Ramsden, C. E., Zamora, D., Leelarthaepin, B., Majchrzak-Hong, S. F., Faurot, K. R.,
Suchindran, C. M., ... & Hibbeln, J. R. (2013). Use of dietary linoleic acid for secondary
prevention of coronary heart disease and death: evaluation of recovered data from the

4NURS329
Sydney Diet Heart Study and updated meta-analysis. Bmj, 346,
e8707.doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.e8707
Redfern, J., & Chow, C. K. (2013). Secondary prevention of coronary heart disease in Australia:
a blueprint for reform. Med J Aust, 198(2), 70-71, doi: 10.5694/mja12.11080