Advice to help stop heart attacks for Indigenous Australians

To combat high risk of heart attack and strokes, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should have had their heart checked by a GP by age 18 at the latest, according to new national recommendations. As part of a regular health check with a GP, the recommendations launched today have moved the age Indigenous people should get screened for Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) down from 35 to 18. Based on research from The Australian National University (ANU), a host of health professionals and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander CVD experts have agreed on the latest efforts to continue closing the gap on early heart attacks among Indigenous Australians.   -   - "We have seen great improvements in CVD prevention and this was highlighted in this year's Closing the Gap speech," said ANU lead researcher Dr Jason Agostino.  "However, it remains a leading cause of preventable death in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. We need to be doing all we can to prevent it.  "Just about every Aboriginal person I know has a family member or a community member who's died young from a heart attack or stroke. We need to change that.  "We can improve things by picking up conditions like diabetes and kidney disease early and starting conversations about treatment."  In the last 20 years, the rate of deaths from heart attacks and strokes among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders peoples have almost halved. However, three out of four Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults under 35 have at least one CVD risk factor.