Pulse on heart disease prevention

HEALTH companies Novartis and Wesfarmers have announced a national roll-out of their healthy hearts screening pop-ups.

The program will provide people living in rural and regional areas access to free heart health checks and will be in Bendigo this October.

Hospitalisations from cardiovascular disease have increased by a third in the past two decades and 90 percent of Australian adults are known to have at least one risk factor.

Cardiologist and director of the Monash Victorian Heart Institute, Professor Stephen Nicholls, was the chief investigator for the program’s pilot study and said the pop-up screenings are an important prevention measure.

Professor Nicholls said people in regional Australia have high rates of heart disease and often have poorer access to specialist care.

“We know that a lot of heart disease is preventable, but it starts with people knowing their numbers and that’s why these heart health screens are really important,” he said.

At the pop-up screenings people will be able to have their blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol levels checked and will receive results within 15-minutes.

“It can be hard to see a GP so taking the screening out into the community gives people more opportunity to have the information they need to start a conversation about reducing their risk of having a heart attack or stroke in the future,” Professor Nicholls said.

Prevention of CVD starts with lifestyle changes that target risk factors such as smoking, diet, and exercise.

“If we’re going to give prevention advice then we need to be able to give it in ways that people can use that advice and integrate it into what they’re able to do in their normal daily comings and goings,” Professor Nicholls said.

According to Professor Nicholls the plaque build-up that leads to heart disease begins growing decades before a serious event such as a heart attack.

“We’ve got an opportunity across many decades to make a big difference if we can do these prevention things then we can stop these plaques from building in the first place,” he said.

The pop-up heart health screenings are due to be at Bendigo Agricultural Show as part of the Latrobe Health Stand from 27-29 October.