Cardiovascular Disease: Impact, Determinants, and Nursing Care

This report provides a detailed analysis of cardiovascular disease, focusing on its significance, impact on individuals, families, and communities, and its prevalence within Australia. It explores the relationship between cardiovascular disease and the Australian National Health Priorities, highlighting the leading causes of death and hospitalization. The report delves into the social determinants of health, examining how factors like economic conditions, social environments, and access to healthcare influence cardiovascular health outcomes. Furthermore, it examines the role of nurses in managing patients with cardiovascular disease, emphasizing the importance of comprehensive care that includes risk assessment, patient education, and the implementation of effective treatment plans. The report also highlights the application of upstreaming approaches to nursing care, emphasizing the need for nurses to possess in-depth knowledge of psychology, behavior change, and medicine to provide appropriate guidance and support to patients, irrespective of their backgrounds. The report concludes by referencing key studies and resources that inform the analysis.

Cardiovascular Disease

Significance of cardiovascular disease
Cardiovascular disease occurs due to the significant impact on heart
and blood vessels. Cardiovascular disease includes stroke, heart
attack, and other heart diseases. Cardiovascular diseases may be
caused by high blood pressure, smoking, diabetes, high cholesterol,
and alcohol consumption. Cardiovascular diseases can be prohibited
by healthy eating habits, regular exercise and by limiting alcohol
consumption. To prevent cardiovascular disease it is necessary to treat
hypertension, diabetes and high blood lipids with drugs that in turn
reduces the risk of stroke or any other cardiovascular disease (Murad,
Atta-ur-Rahman and Bian, 2017). The most common type of
cardiovascular disease is coronary artery disease. In this particular
disease, plaque gets accumulated in the artery narrowing them which
in turn decreases the blood flow to the heart. This coronary artery
disease can lead to heart attack.
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Impact of cardiovascular disease on individual, family, and
community
Cardiovascular disease imposes significant impact on an individual.
The risk factors associated with heart stroke and diseases are physical
inactivity, unhealthy diet and commotions of tobacco and alcohol.
Thus, an individual with cardiovascular disease should eat healthy
foods, carry out physical exercise and avoid tobacco and alcohol. If
any particular member of the family suffers from heart attack then all
other members of the family have to make certain adjustments
accordingly. If the primary bread earner of the family gets a heart
attack or stroke and cannot go out to work, it increases pressure on the
other members of the family. Women heart patients suffers from
anxiety because they are the primary caretakers of the family. A
patient suffering from cardiovascular disease gets depressed because
of unstable health, physical limitation, and social limitation (Goodlin
and Rich, 2015). Cardiovascular disease affects society by decreasing
the psychological soundness of the masses. The overall wellbeing of
society gets hampered.
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The relationship between the health issue and Australian National
Health Priorities
Cardiovascular disease is considered to be the leading cause of
disease burden death in Australia (Heart Foundation, 2018). The
people suffering from cardiovascular disease have been increased due
to factors such as aging population and enhanced treatments have
assisted people to live longer with the disease. Cardiovascular disease
has included in the Australian National Health Priorities areas. It is
being found that the major causes of death associated with
cardiovascular health are stroke, peripheral vascular disease, coronary
heart disease and heart failure (Aihw, 2019). It is being found that
43,477 people died due to cardiovascular disease in 2017. The disease
kills one people in every 12 minutes in Australia. 65 years or above
people are living with long term cardiovascular disease. It is being
found that more than 575800 people hospitalized due to the disease in
the year 2017. The deaths of 4377 people were considered to be
preventable. The highest rate of death and hospitalization can be seen
in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and lower socio-economic
groups living in the remote regions. 73% of people between the aged
of 30 to 65 years have reported that they have one risk factor
associated with heart disease (Heart Foundation, 2018). Millions of
people aged 18 years and above suffer due to blood pressure and
cholesterol. The changing lifestyle of the people in Australia has led
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to an increase in the disease. Smoking is considered to be one of the
most significant causes of death and ill health in Australia.
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Impact of social determinants on cardiovascular disease
Cardiovascular disease is a major cause of death among high
economic growth countries. Despite significant advancement in the
identification, modification, and treatment of risk factors gross
inequalities exist in cardiovascular health care. It has been estimated
that by the year 2030, 25% of the total deaths will be caused by
cardiovascular diseases. The social environment has a great impact on
the community. The social determinants of health include the
condition in which a person is born in, grows, lives and work
(Andreadis, 2016). The social determinant of health along with the
available health care system is responsible for causing health
inequalities within countries. Economic development has a significant
impact on health. In order to bridge the gap of inequality in health
care systems, it is important to know the root cause behind the
existing inequality. People with poorer economic conditions have a
high risk of poor health. Health inequalities are reduced to a large
extent by early childhood developments. Social exclusions have the
potential of causing health inequalities by damaging relationships,
illness, and social isolation. Economic inequalities may result in poor
health conditions. Unemployed people ran a greater risk of poor
health conditions than people of the higher or middle-income group.
The residential environment of an individual has a great impact on the
health condition of that particular individual. The neighborhood that
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has access to basic health care facilities are psychologically sound
than people devoid of basic health care facilities (Moghadasian and
Eskin, 2012).
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The relationship between the health issue and upstreaming
approach to nursing care
The nurses play a significant role in managing patients suffering from
cardiovascular disease. The nurses should have an in-depth
knowledge of psychology, behavior change and medicine. A nurse
should provide appropriate direction to the patients irrespective to
their age, ethnicity, race, socio-demographics, literacy, and culture.
The nurses use different tools and techniques for decreasing the stress
of the patient. It is being found that mortality and morbidity can be
improved with the implementation of appropriate treatment plan such
as stress reduction plan (Taylor, 2015). The nurse uses multifactor or
integrated approach depicting highly effective in decreasing mortality
and morbidity. The nurse plays a significant role in various levels
such as a technical level where they conduct risk assessments and
diagnostic assessments and psychological level where they carry out
work as the health advisor in order to assist patients in their self-care
process. Thus, the patients are assisted with risk assessment, patient
education, adoption of guidelines and drug treatment. The patients are
also advised to improve their dietary routine in order to remain
healthy.
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References
Aihw (2019). 6 National Health Priority Areas. [online] Aihw.gov.au. Available at: https://www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/78bc02fd-a75e-4f25-a0ae-
b27f7bb2a4b2/bdia-c06.pdf.aspx [Accessed 8 Apr. 2019].
Andreadis, E. (2016). Hypertension and Cardiovascular Disease. 5th ed. Cham: Springer International Publishing.
Available at: https://www.heartfoundation.org.au/about-us/what-we-do/heart-disease-in-australia [Accessed 8 Apr. 2019].
Goodlin, S. and Rich, M. (2015). End-of-Life Care in Cardiovascular Disease. 4th ed. London: Springer London.
Heart Foundation (2018). Heart disease in Australia. [online] The Heart Foundation.
Murad, F., Atta-ur-Rahman and Bian, K. (2017). Cardiovascular diseases. 6th ed. Sharjah: Bentham Science Publishers.
Taylor, C. (2015). Fundamentals of nursing. 4th ed. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
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