Cardiovascular Diseases in Indigenous Populations of Australia

Running head: HEALTHCARE
Topic: HEALTHCARE
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Part A: Report
According to statistical reports from the World Health Organization, more than 17.9 million
people have been suffering from cardiovascular disease creating a whopping percentage of
31% of deaths all across the world. An estimated 75% of deaths have mainly occurred in the
middle income and low income countries. Moreover, more than 85 % of the deaths have
occurred due to cardiovascular diseases mainly due to strokes and heart attacks (WHO,
2019). American heart association along with the center for disease control as well as
prevention have found the statistics regarding the prevalence of cardiovascular diseases all
across the world. Cardiovascular diseases and ailments like stroke have produced various
health as well as economic burdens in financially stable countries like USA and Australia
(Mozaffarian et al., 2016).
Cardiovascular diseases like CVD has been the main or leading cause of the diseases
burden in Australia. Number of people being affected by the diseases has been increasing due
to various factors like ageing of the population and the improvement in the treatment process
which has often resulted in the people often living longer with CVD. The most common form
of heart diseases in Australia has been the ischemic heart diseases. Apart from it, there are
two main forms of the cardiovascular diseases known as heart diseases, heart failures stroke
and peripheral vascular heart diseases (Health.gov.au, 2019).

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Fig 1: Statistical distribution of cardiovascular diseases among people more than 35 year age
(Heart Disease Fact Sheet, 2019).
The populations mainly affected are from the indigenous community of Torres
and Islander states in terms of social and economic reasons. Most people with more than 65
years of age usually suffer from heart diseases and often suffer from long-term effects of
CVD. Moreover, it has been the main cause of hospitalizations in year’s 2016 and 2017.
Moreover people usually belonging to the lower socioeconomic groups of Aboriginal as well
as Torres Islander people as well as people living in the remote areas of Australia have shown
to have the highest rate of hospitalization as well as deaths which has been occurring due to
CVD in Australia. Almost 34% of Australians has shown the prevalence of heart diseases and
they are aged 18 years of age. Moreover they have shown higher chances of high cholesterol

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representing almost 5.6 million Australians (Savares & Rund, 2017). Thus obesity, higher
levels of cholesterol has been the major cause of increasing heart diseases in people more
than 18 years of age whereas people more than 65 years of age have been suffering from long
term effects of the diseases. Regarding the lifestyle risk factors associated with the factors of
heart diseases, smoking and a sedentary lifestyle especially among youngsters has been found
to be major cause for the prevalence of the heart diseases in Australia. Regarding the
epidemiology of heart diseases in developed countries, it has been seen that almost one third
of the deaths usually occur in middle aged people (Berkman, Kawachi & Glymour, 2014).
Studied involving autopsies between various years have found the prevalence of the diseases
among subjects among 20-59 from 42% to 32% men as well as 29% to 16% in women. 44
years data has shown that there is an incidence of coronary heart diseases include unstable
angina, sudden as well as sudden coronary deaths (Nichols et al., 2015). Coronary events
have been almost 65% in atherosclerotic events in men as well as 28 and 58% in women.
CVD mortality recently has been reduced in USA and the regions where there is advanced
economic as well as high income heath systems. Most dramatic increase in CHD has been
along the areas of Middle East as well as Latin. Epidemiologic studies done among the areas
of Australia (Benjamin et al., 2017).
The various proximal determinants considered in the case of people affected with
heart diseases are the use of anthropogenic substances which often cause a monocausal focus
inclusive of the prevalence of the chronic diseases. The proximal determinants for the heart
diseases are nutrition, smoking, as well as inactivity. Moreover, there are determinants like
peer pressure as well as physical exercises. The distal determinants are inclusive of economic
as well as social policies (Nowbar et al., 2014). The distal determinants are often associated
with the term known as social disadvantage. It exists through socioeconomic status as well as
income inequalities. Moreover, according to the Commission on the social determinants of