A report recently released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has highlighted the facts about heart disease in Australian women.
While there is higher profile awareness in the community about issues surrounding mainly female-specific diseases such as breast cancer, findings from the report reveal that cardiovascular diseases (diseases of the heart and blood vessels) are a major threat to the health of Australian women.
Key points from the report, which have also been highlighted by the risk store, include:
- Coronary Heart Disease (CHD), stroke and other heart diseases (including heart failure) are the three leading causes of death among women
- Cardiovascular Diseases (CVDs) not only cause more deaths than any other disease group (more than one in three deaths among women in 2006), but are also responsible for more than one-quarter of premature death among women
- CHD and stroke were the two leading causes of years of life lost to premature death among women in 2003
- CVDs are also in the top 10 causes of disability-CHD and stroke were the fifth and ninth leading causes of years of healthy life lost to poor health or disability
- About two million Australian women have CVD-about 226,000 women have CHD, 168,000 have had stroke and 176,000 have heart failure
In terms of prevalence, the report states:
Coronary heart disease is by far the biggest cause of death among Australian women
- Among Australian women overall, CHD, stroke and heart failure are all less common than asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and diabetes, and more common than breast cancer, dementia and lung cancer
- Coronary heart disease is by far the biggest cause of death among Australian women overall, followed by stroke and dementia
- In terms of disease burden for females overall, CHD (9% of total) is second only to anxiety and depression (10%), followed by stroke (5%).
But the key message from the report is that there is enormous potential to reduce the incidence of cardiovascular diseases because many of the causes are preventable.
The report says that more than 90% of Australian women have at least one modifiable risk factor for CVD and that half of all Australian women have two or three. The report says:
‘… the vast majority [of women] consume inadequate amounts of fruit and/or vegetables, three-quarters are physically inactive, more than half are overweight or obese, and almost half have high blood cholesterol.’
The report adds that:
- Many of these risk factors are already common among young females-from as young as 35-44 years
- It is more common for females to be overweight or obese than to have a healthy weight
- One in five of those aged 20-29 years smoke daily
The message to Australian women is that they can redcuce both the severity and number of coexisting risk factors by making the right lifestyle choices when it comes to areas such as smoking, food and physical activity.
Click here to access a copy of the report summary.
