Heart Disease

Editor: Justin Healey
ISBN 978 1 920801 35 9
Year 2005

Price: $20.95

  

Heart Disease
Volume 225, Issues in Society

Heart, stroke and vascular diseases kill more Australians than any other group (almost 40% of deaths in 2002). More than 13 million Australians have at least one risk factor for cardiovascular disease, due largely to lifestyles with poor eating habits, excess weight and a lack of exercise. What are the major risk factors in this heart disease epidemic; what are the ways in which we can lessen the risk and improve our health? This book provides an overview of the extent and types of heart disease, risk factors to avoid, and gives advice on how to manage diet, exercise, smoking, alcohol intake and stress.

Chapter 1  Extent and Types of Heart Disease
Types of cardiovascular disease; Global burden of coronary heart disease; Deaths from coronary heart disease; Heart facts around the world; Heart, stroke and vascular diseases; Cardiovascular disease in Australia: a snapshot; What do we know about cardiovascular disease?; Anatomy of the heart; Heart disease fact file; Heart attack explained.

Chapter 2  Heart Disease Risk Factors and Prevention
Appetite for heart disease; Link between excess weight and heart disease significant; Not-so-littlies at risk of heart disease; Heart disease and food; Healthy eating for the heart; Alcohol and heart disease; Raise a glass a day to your good health, experts advise; Cardiovascular disease and tobacco smoking; Lonely hearts are broken by disease; Depression can be as bad for your heart as smoking; Stress link to one in five heart attacks; Helping your heart; Tips to help prevent heart attacks.

Glossary; Facts and Figures; Additional Resources; Index



FAST FACTS from this volume
  • An average heart beats about 100,000 times daily or about two and a half billion times over a 70 year lifetime.
  • Cardiovascular disease is responsible for 10% of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) lost in low- and middle-income countries, and 18% in high-income countries.
  • Coronary heart disease is decreasing in many developed countries, but is increasing in developing and transitional countries, partly as a result of increasing longevity, urbanization, and lifestyle changes.
  • While genetic factors play a part, 80% to 90% of people dying from coronary heart disease have one or more major risk factors that are influenced by lifestyle.
  • Of all coronary heart disease patients who die within 28 days after the onset of symptoms, about two-thirds die before reaching hospital. This highlights not only the need for early recognition of the warning signs of a heart attack, but also the need for prevention.
  • Heart, stroke and vascular diseases kill more Australians than any other disease group – 50,294 deaths (37.6% of all deaths) in 2002.
  • Around 3.67 million Australians are affected by heart, stroke and vascular diseases.
  • 1.1 million Australians are disabled long-term by heart, stroke and vascular diseases.
  • The prevalence of heart, stroke and vascular conditions increased by 18.2% over the last decade.
  • The total burden of heart, stroke and vascular diseases is expected to increase over the coming decades due to the growing number of elderly Australians, among whom these diseases are most common.
  • 90% of Australian adults have at least one modifiable risk factor for heart, stroke and vascular diseases and 25% have three or more risk factors.
  • Major preventable risk factors for cardiovascular disease are tobacco smoking, high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, insufficient physical activity, overweight and obesity, poor nutrition and diabetes.
  • The two cardiovascular diseases causing the highest number of deaths were ischaemic heart disease and cerebrovascular disease (stroke). In 2002, ischaemic heart disease accounted for 20% of all deaths of males, and 19% of all deaths of females. Stroke has been the second most common cause of cardiovascular death since 1968, causing 7% of all deaths of males and 12% of all deaths of females in 2002.
  • Those hospitalised for stroke have the highest in-hospital mortality (10.7% of stroke hospitalisations). Heart failure (8.9%) had the next highest rate, followed by peripheral vascular disease (8.2%), coronary heart disease (2.9%) and rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease (2.4%).
  • In 2001, CVD accounted for 38% of all Australian deaths. The vast majority of CVD deaths were due to coronary heart disease (26% of all deaths) and stroke (9% of all deaths). CVD was also responsible for 7.5% of all hospital separations. In terms of health care costs, CVD was responsible for 12% ($7.8 billion) of the total health expenditure in 2002, making it the most costly health condition. Of the various cardiovascular conditions, coronary heart disease and high blood pressure incurred the greatest health expenditure.
  • Within the Australian population, certain population groups are at increased risk for developing and dying from cardiovascular conditions. These groups include Indigenous Australians, people of lower socio-economic status, males over the age of 45 years and males in rural and remote areas.
  • The most common cause of heart failure is death of heart muscle from coronary artery disease. It may result from a major heart attack, or a series of heart attacks. Or it may occur slowly and painlessly from coronary artery disease over a period of years. The heart muscle can also be weakened by a virus or by alcoholism. (A disease of heart muscle is known as a cardiomyopathy.) As well, structural defects in the heart may be to blame – a faulty heart valve, or a hole in the chamber of the heart in an infant, for example.
  • A heart attack is almost always preceded by a condition called coronary heart disease. Over the years, fatty deposits or plaques build up inside one or both of the coronary arteries (in a process called atherosclerosis). This constant silting narrows the artery and can cause angina (chest pain or discomfort), which typically occurs during activity or emotion. When a blood clot forms at a narrowed point and blocks the passage of blood altogether, this is called coronary thrombosis or coronary occlusion.
  • A heart attack can be mild, moderate or severe. Some people experience few symptoms or none at all, or confuse the symptoms with indigestion.
  • An Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report, Living Dangerously: Australians with multiple risk factors for cardiovascular disease, considered nine risk factors: smoking, physical inactivity, obesity, low fruit consumption, low vegetable consumption, risky alcohol consumption, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes. An estimated 92 per cent of Australian adults had at least one of the nine risk factors and 53 per cent had two or three. The more risk factors people had, the more likely they were to report having had a heart attack, stroke, angina or clogged arteries.