Heart Week is Australia’s national heart health awareness week held in the first week of May each year. It provides an opportunity for the Australian public and health professionals to start a conversation about heart health and take positive steps to reduce their heart disease risk.
Heart disease is a leading cause of death in Australia, with around 48,000 deaths each year. In fact, one Australian dies every 12 minutes due to heart disease.
The good news is that many cases of heart disease can be prevented through simple lifestyle changes such as eating a healthy diet, being physically active, maintaining a healthy weight, quitting smoking, and managing stress. These changes can also help people who already have heart disease to manage their condition and prevent it from getting worse.
Heart Week is an opportunity to remind Australians of the importance of taking care of their heart health. It's a chance to encourage people to make small changes that can have a big impact on their health and wellbeing.
Here are some key statistics on heart disease in Australia:
- Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is responsible for 27% of all deaths in Australia.
- Around 4.2 million Australians are affected by CVD
- In 2017-18, there were 1.2 million hospitalizations related to CVD
- CVD costs the Australian economy around $5.9 billion per year in healthcare and lost productivity.
So, this Heart Week check out the great tools at Heart Foundation like their Heart Age Calculator - gives you an estimate of your heart age or their tips and recipes to help you make small changes to your own lifestyle or support others to do the same.