Heart Disease For Australian Population †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Heart Disease For Australian Population. Answer: 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 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 Australias 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 o f 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. 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 Australias Health on Track, Available at: https://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 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