Page 2876 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 11 October 2022
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outcomes for women in relation to CVD, and promote awareness of the actions that can be taken to reduce CVD risk;
(d) advocate with the Federal Government to implement the actions it has outlined in its National Strategic Action Plan for Heart Disease and Stroke, including progressing:
(i) a “women and heart disease” campaign; and
(ii) continuing to enhance data for, collection and management of cardiovascular diseases;
(e) leverage communication activities to promote awareness of CVD, the symptoms, and prevention to both the community and health professionals, for example during Heart Week and Women’s Health Week; and
(f) report back to this Assembly by the final sitting week of 2023.
In the movies, a heart attack is easy to spot: a person clutches their chest with a clear expression of pain and says, “I’m having a heart attack.” In reality, it is not always like that, and especially not for women. For years, research has indicated that signs of a heart attack are very different for women than for men.
For example, instead of crushing chest pain, women may experience shortness of breath, nausea or vomiting, or pain in the back, neck or jaw. These symptoms may develop slowly over hours or days and even come and go. Women and medical personnel may also attribute these symptoms to other health conditions such as indigestion, which may lead to misdiagnoses. The Heart Foundation encourages women 45 years or older to ask their GP about a Medicare-subsidised heart health check.
Earlier this year Professor Clara Chow, Cardiologist and Clinical Lead of Community Based Cardiac Services at Westmead Hospital, said that many women do not believe her when she tells them they have had a heart attack. She says that a lot of women assume heart disease is something that mainly affects men. However, research shows that cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death for Australian women.
Cardiovascular disease is the most prevalent disease impacting our community. I note the federal government’s National Strategic Action Plan for Heart Disease and Stroke that aims to ensure that all Australians can live healthier lives through effective prevention, treatment and management of heart disease and stroke. These are commendable goals. However, as has been advocated by the Heart Foundation, there needs to be a more nuanced approach to address the sex-specific and gendered aspects of cardiovascular disease.
Today, over four million Australians live with cardiovascular disease and approximately 44,000 Australians will die each year from the disease. In Australia, in 2018 cardiovascular disease prevalence was 35,000 for females and 31,500 for males; whereas, of those, 2,656 females were hospitalised compared to over 3,000 males.
When we compare the ACT to the rest of the country, statistics show that we have comparable rates of cardiovascular disease to the rest of Australia. In 2020, in the ACT, 48 people per 100,000 died from coronary heart disease, on par with the
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