Cardiovascular Disorder Policy Brief: HMG7100 Assignment Report

This policy brief examines cardiovascular disorders (CVD) in Australia, a major cause of death and a significant healthcare cost. It highlights the prevalence of CVD, its association with other chronic conditions, and the impact of factors like ethnicity, age, and unhealthy behaviors. The brief analyzes current policies, such as those by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and the National Preventative Health Taskforce, identifying their strengths and weaknesses. It emphasizes the need for increased awareness, improved data analysis, and effective implementation of guidelines. The report also explores the socioeconomic determinants of CVD, including living conditions, health literacy, and income levels, and provides recommendations for future policy interventions to reduce the burden of CVD in Australia.

CARDIOVASCULAR DISORDER BRIEF POLICY 1
CARDIOVASCULAR DISORDER POLICY BRIEF
Student’s Name
Subject
Lecturer
Institutional Affiliation
Due Date

CARDIOVASCULAR DISORDER BRIEF POLICY 2
Cardiovascular Disorder Policy Brief
Executive Summary
This policy brief focusses on cardiovascular disorder (CVD), a term used to refer to all
illnesses affecting the heart as well as the blood vessels. These conditions include rheumatic and
congenital heart diseases, heart failure, cardiomyopathy and stroke, with coronary heart disease
being the main and most common cardiovascular disorder. CVD is a principal cause of death in
Australia, killing many people throughout the years in varying numbers. Cardiovascular
disorders also develop in close association with other chronic conditions such as cancer, arthritis
and diabetes which enhance their severity. These disorders are caused by unhealthy behaviors
such as lack of exercise and eating unbalanced diet. Just like many other health problems they
may be caused by social economic factors including education and health literacy, living
conditions as well as the income levels of an individual. Some causes of CVD such as ethnicity
and age cannot be modified by the individual. The Australian government has put up some
policy options such as National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and National
Preventative Health Taskforce to deal with the problem of cardiovascular disorders. However,
these policies have shortcomings in that the NHMRC faces challenges with vast data that needs
interpretation and derivation of conclusions. National Preventative Health Taskforce, on the
other hand, focuses mostly on economic aspects of the solving health issues which are not
effective due to the fact that devoting more resources to one area, leaves less assets for other
economic activities. Therefore, the government should put into concentrate on creating
awareness about CVD and providing the required technology for the researchers to convert data
into guidelines. Leaders from NHMRC should work closing with hospital administrators to

CARDIOVASCULAR DISORDER BRIEF POLICY 3
ensure that the guidelines are being implemented during practice and they are working towards
the same goals.
Introduction
Cardiovascular disorder (CVD) refers to a number of conditions and diseases involving
the blood vessels and the heart. The main cardiovascular disorders are the coronary heart
diseases such as heart attack and angina. Other conditions include congenital heart disease,
rheumatic heart disease, heart failure, stroke as well as cardiomyopathy. Cardiovascular disorder
is a very serious issue in Australia that require urgent action. In fact, it is a major cause of death
in the country, alongside other serious chronic conditions like cancer (Peng and Wang, 2018). In
the year 2017, for instance, an approximation of 43, 477 mortalities in the nation were attributed
to cardiovascular disorder. This condition lead to the death of a person every 12 minutes (Baune
and Tully 2016). Approximately 4.2 million people are suffering from one cardiovascular disease
or other while about a million more are at high or moderate risk of developing the disorders.
Cardiovascular conditions also appear top in the most common kinds of chronic disorders in
Australia. In addition, these disorders have severe co-morbidities, that is, may cause or be caused
by occurrence of other diseases, which are chronic conditions thus worsening the CVD. These
include diabetes, arthritis and cancer (Sweeting et al., 2016).
Cost implications
Treatment of cardiovascular disorders has the highest cost for the nation in comparison to
other conditions affecting Australia. The costs incorporated in CVD care and treatment amounts
to an approximation of 12% of the expenses associated with health care in the country. The Heart
foundation of Australia, through their statistical analysis, established that cardiovascular disorder

CARDIOVASCULAR DISORDER BRIEF POLICY 4
had been the main cause of hospitalization for more than 575,800 cases in the year 2016-2017.
The situation had been more prominent among the rural and remote dwellers as well as in the
lower socio-economic communities in the nation such as among the Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people (Barclay, Phillips and Lyle, 2018). Here, the hospitalization rates and death had
been found to be the highest for these two cohorts. Currently, CVD accounts for about 15 percent
of the total burden of disorders, coming second after cancers at roughly 19 percent. In 2012-
2013, $ 5.0 billion was spent on offering healthcare to the admitted patients ailing from
cardiovascular disorders. Also, this accounted for 11.1 percent of the total expenditures for
admittance in the country, approximately. This is a very large share compared to the investments
made for other disorder groups in the country (Correll et al. 2017).
Causes of CVD
Ethnicity: this is an unmodifiable risk factor in that more of the indigenous population in
Australia are suffering from chronic conditions and cardiovascular disorders as compared to non-
indigenous Australians ((Tully et al. 2016). The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, for
example, have gone through many adversities since the colonization of the country by European
settlers. Hardships such as the Chosen Generation has set these communities back in terms of not
only mental health but other conditions as well. Most of them live in poor housing conditions
and have a lower socio-economic status as compared to other Australians. More of them than
non-indigenous Australians are also involved in extreme drinking and smoking habits. This leads
to a gap in health and life expectancy between the indigenous and non-indigenous Australians
(Vos et al., 2009).
Age: It has been established that the populations of the aged are growing as a result of
improved health care services and technological innovations in the field of medicine leading to

CARDIOVASCULAR DISORDER BRIEF POLICY 5
medical research progressions. Thus, more elders in the country are aging, living longer but
being victimized by the burden of CVD in the process.
Behavioral aspects: these include factors such as eating improper diets, lack of physical
exercises, tobacco, excessive consumption of alcohol and obesity. Many Australians do not
observe healthy lifestyles and thus many have high blood pressure, other’s high cholesterol while
the most of the rest have at least one risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. In the development
of cardiovascular conditions, studies have found high blood pressure and high cholesterol as the
two of the key causes. In addition, smoking leads to development of CVD to many people being
the single most noteworthy aspect of ill health in the nation-state. In the years 2014/2015 one in
seven Australians between 15 years old and above was found to be smoking every day (Emdin et
al. 2016). In the same year, about 63 percent of the population aged 18 years or above were
obese and overweight. Additionally, many Australian are not engaged in any kind of physical
exercise (Vancampfort et al. 2017).
Social determinants
 Living conditions: A person’s conditions of living also largely contribute to their
healthiness. These can indirectly influence people’s susceptibility to various chronic
illnesses (Knibbs and Sly, 2014).
 health literacy and education: People with inadequate education or have meagre health
literacy do not fully comprehend the significance of making fit lifestyle choices and
adopting healthy behaviors. These include behaviors such as avoiding oily foods to avoid
high cholesterol, evading sedentary lives, eating vegetables and fruits and basically a
well-balanced diet and engaging in regular exercise (Nemani et al. 2017). Poor literacy

CARDIOVASCULAR DISORDER BRIEF POLICY 6
on health hinders people from understanding the importance of being regularly screened
for cardiovascular diseases.
 income and unemployment: these are closely related to the level of education in that
lack of good education may hinder one from accessing a good employment opportunity
thus impacting their level of income as well as their socio-economic status (Havranek et
al., 2015). Fast foods are cheaper than healthier meals such as proteins, fruits and
vegetables and are therefore ingested by people with lower finances. They are calorie
dense and can easily cause overweight and even obesity if eaten continuously and in large
amounts. Also, these meals enhance the chances of enhancing other conditions such as
high blood pressure and high cholesterol which may cause cardiovascular disorders
(Pedersen et al. 2017).
Policies in Place to reduce the risk of Cardiovascular Disorders
National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)
This is the topmost funding body in relation to medical research in Australia. It was
founded for the purposes of development and maintenance of health standards in the country,
accountable for effecting the National Health and Medical Research Council Act 1992 (Dyke
and Anderson, 2014).
Roles
The NHMRC is responsible for:
o Setting criteria for the development as well as review of guidelines, to acertain that they
are based on the best obtainable scientific evidence

CARDIOVASCULAR DISORDER BRIEF POLICY 7
o making clear commendations for health specialists practising in an Australian health care
setting in accordance with the established guidelines
o approving guidelines created externally that meet the required specifications
o recommending that all rules and strategies be revised every five years (Dixit and
Sambasivan, 2018)
Challenges Faced by NHMRC
 The organization faces challenges in areas such as deriving evidence-based conclusions
from the extensive field of medical research and health. This is due to the vast number of
new findings recognized from the efforts of the medical researchers on a daily basis
(Anderson and Papadakis, 2009)
 Converting the research data into strategies for tease of use by practitioners and policy
makers in decision making is a problem. Transformation of the research in an impromptu
manner may lead to misinterpretation and misdirection which could lead to making of
unfavorable decisions by the policymakers. Only a minority of the clinical guidelines in
Australia have been developed in thoroughness (Anderson and Papadakis, 2009)
 There are huge amounts of literature that the researchers are supposed to go through in
order to come to a conclusion. Reading all this information, understanding and reflecting
on it is time consuming and exhausting, yet the important research work cannot be left to
be determined by the market forces of the country (for commercial purposes)
 The medical research is a broad field and therefore NHMRC is complex and maybe
subject to management issues. The leaders of the Council may not have synchronized
relationship with the administrators of healthcare organizations leading to inconsistences
in implementation of the guidelines

CARDIOVASCULAR DISORDER BRIEF POLICY 8
 The workforce for the medical research is not balanced since there are few women, hence
the organization is not fully utilizing intellectual resources in the country
National Preventative Health Taskforce
Critique
In their 2009 report, the National Preventative Health Taskforce made several policy
recommendations regarding alcohol consumption, obesity and tobacco. However, they were
economic in nature, for instance, regulating the minimum price of alcohol, all-inclusive tax
system used to discourage inactive behavior, increasing the price of tobacco, and further
regulating its manufacturing and packaging. An economic approach such as this try to put into
consideration all benefits and costs which is not an effective method for a heath policy.
Increasing the costs of all these consumables just for the sake of changing people’s unhealthy
behaviors is not operative in the long run since people in the society have other goals. Using an
economic technique upsets other industries as well in addition to the health sector thus leading to
an imbalance in the economy. This approach tries to trade off health for the other goals of
individuals and the society as a whole. This is because the available resources are scarce/limited
and therefore devoting more assets or funds to change in people’s behavior means that those
finances cannot be used for other activities in the economy (Harrison and Robson, 2011).
The Taskforce Report does not provide a comprehensive explain on how policies such as
having higher taxes would lessen the problem of drinking without diminishing moderate drinking
by responsible individuals, which is actually beneficial. Also, evidence indicates that an increase
in the prices of drinks is likely to affect heavy drinkers less as compared to moderate drinkers.
Even when the prices escalate, alcoholics and heavy drinkers will most probably continue

CARDIOVASCULAR DISORDER BRIEF POLICY 9
consuming the amount of alcohol they were used to before increase in price. They will only use
more of their money and may neglect other important responsibilities. On the other hand,
moderate drinkers are more likely to reduce or even stop their drinking in favor of other issues
that need finances. Hence, an economic methodology to increase the price of alcohol has the
opposite results of what is really intended, thus does not promote health at all (Harrison and
Robson, 2011).
Recommendations
Cardiovascular diseases are serious conditions that have affected and continuous to affect the
people of Australia and the world at large. It has led to the death of many individuals all over and
thus all efforts should be put together to reduce the numbers of people dying from these
disorders. Various methods should be put together for effectiveness in dealing with such a
serious issue. These include:
 New, more improved and faster method in which research data can be easily converted
into clinical guidelines
 A better and more technologically advanced technique is required for the researchers to
be able to read the huge amounts of literature and save more time. The technique should
also put the data in a form that is easier to understand and make conclusions on
(Anderson and Papadakis, 2009)
 The leaders that administer the guidelines and those that create them should have similar
goals and aims for effectiveness and success of medical procedures that prevents severity
and deaths of cardiovascular disorder patients. The head of the researchers and the
hospital administrators should be heading in the same direction in terms of health

CARDIOVASCULAR DISORDER BRIEF POLICY 10
 Instead of using an economic approach to solving health problems, the government
should look into creating awareness and establishing educational programs which teach
people on the importance of good health overall as well as on the warning symptoms of
CVD in order to seek help immediately (Dixit and Sambasivan, 2018)
 The government should strategically with the National Institute of Clinical Studies
(NICS) within the NHMRC to enhance the uptake of clinical guidelines that are
nationally standardized for use in various subsectors including community care acute care
as well as general practice
 the government should work with the National Preventative Health Taskforce in develop
better and more effective national policies decrease tobacco and alcohol consumption
levels and improve nutrition
 Implement effective and culturally competent CVD rehabilitation strategies within the
Indigenous groups in both mainstream healthcare and Aboriginal specific services (Ski et
al., 2015)
 Develop precise policies to deal with lower intervention rates and poorer health outcomes
for economically and socially underprivileged people
 incorporate use of linked methods of improving the management of cardiovascular
disease patients, involving all health sectors including general practice, NGOs, public
health services, and other stakeholders within the recognized communities.
References

CARDIOVASCULAR DISORDER BRIEF POLICY 11
Anderson, W.P. and Papadakis, E.M., 2009. Research to improve health practice and policy. The
Medical Journal of Australia, 191(11), pp.646-647.
Barclay, L., Phillips, A. and Lyle, D., 2018. Rural and remote health research: Does the
investment match the need?. Australian Journal of Rural Health, 26(2), pp.74-79.
Baune, B.T. and Tully, P.J. eds., 2016. Cardiovascular Diseases and Depression: Treatment and
Prevention in Psychocardiology. Springer.
Dixit, S.K. and Sambasivan, M., 2018. A review of the Australian healthcare system: A policy
perspective. SAGE open medicine, 6, p.2050312118769211.
Dyke, T. and Anderson, W.P., 2014. A history of health and medical research in
Australia. Medical Journal of Australia, 201(S1), pp.S33-S36.
Emdin, C.A., Odutayo, A., Wong, C.X., Tran, J., Hsiao, A.J. and Hunn, B.H., 2016. Meta-
analysis of anxiety as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. The American journal of
cardiology, 118(4), pp.511-519.
Harrison, M. and Robson, A., 2011. Prevention no cure: A critique of the report of Australia's
national preventative health Taskforce. Agenda: a journal of policy analysis and reform, pp.7-25.
Havranek, E.P., Mujahid, M.S., Barr, D.A., Blair, I.V., Cohen, M.S., Cruz-Flores, S., Davey-
Smith, G., Dennison-Himmelfarb, C.R., Lauer, M.S., Lockwood, D.W. and Rosal, M., 2015.
Social determinants of risk and outcomes for cardiovascular disease: a scientific statement from
the American Heart Association. Circulation, 132(9), pp.873-898.
Knibbs, L.D. and Sly, P.D., 2014. Indigenous health and environmental risk factors: an
Australian problem with global analogues?. Global health action, 7(1), p.23766.

CARDIOVASCULAR DISORDER BRIEF POLICY 12
Nemani, K.L., Greene, M.C., Ulloa, M., Vincenzi, B., Copeland, P.M., Al-Khadari, S. and
Henderson, D.C., 2017. Clozapine, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular risk and mortality: results of
a 21-year naturalistic study in patients with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder. Clinical
schizophrenia & related psychoses.
Pedersen, S.S., Von Känel, R., Tully, P.J. and Denollet, J., 2017. Psychosocial perspectives in
cardiovascular disease. European journal of preventive cardiology, 24(3_suppl), pp.108-115.
Peng, Y. and Wang, Z., 2018. Cardiovascular health status among Australian adults. Clinical
epidemiology, 10, p.167.
Ski, C.F., Vale, M.J., Bennett, G.R., Chalmers, V.L., McFarlane, K., Jelinek, V.M., Scott, I.A.
and Thompson, D.R., 2015. Improving access and equity in reducing cardiovascular risk: the
Queensland Health model. Medical Journal of Australia, 202(3), pp.148-152.
Sweeting, J., Ingles, J., Ball, K. and Semsarian, C., 2016. Sudden deaths during the largest
community running event in Australia: A 25-year review. International journal of
cardiology, 203, pp.1029-1031.
Vancampfort, D., Firth, J., Schuch, F.B., Rosenbaum, S., Mugisha, J., Hallgren, M., Probst, M.,
Ward, P.B., Gaughran, F., De Hert, M. and Carvalho, A.F., 2017. Sedentary behavior and
physical activity levels in people with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depressive
disorder: a global systematic review and meta‐analysis. World Psychiatry, 16(3), pp.308-315.
Vos, T., Barker, B., Begg, S., Stanley, L. and Lopez, A.D., 2009. Burden of disease and injury in
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples: the Indigenous health gap. International journal
of epidemiology, 38(2), pp.470-477.

CARDIOVASCULAR DISORDER BRIEF POLICY 13