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Cardiovascular Disease Research Paper

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Nature of the Problem – Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the general name given to any condition or disease involving the heart and/or blood vessels. There are many different types of CVD, which include:
• Coronary heart disease
• Stroke
• Peripheral vascular disease
• Congenital heart disease
• Heart Failure

Coronary heart disease – This is the most common cause of cardiovascular disease. It usually comes in two forms; heart attack when there is a blockage in the flow of blood to the heart that results in damage to the heart and angina in which serve chest pain is experienced due to lack of blood supply to the heart.

Stroke – This refers to when there is an issue with the supply of blood to the brain, which results in brain damage. (textbook …show more content…

The prevalence of CVD increases, as you get older with 62% of Australians over 65 having a CVD.

This disease is also the most expensive disease and puts a lot of pressure on the government to fund treatments and research. It accounted for 11.2% of the health systems funding in 2004-05 (textbook 2009).

Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the most common CVD and accounts for the most deaths in Australia. The incidence rates for this disease are decreasing. As you can see in the image below CHD is a major contributor to mortality in Australia.

Coronary Heart Disease is also majorly preventable disease with some of the risk factors including smoking and obesity. In 2012 around 585,900 people had CHD. It was more common in males (3.3%) than females (2.0%) .In 2011 around 69,900 people had a heart attack. Heart attack rates have also been declining over the past 5 years by over 20% (AIHW 2013).

The survival rates for this disease have been increasing steadily since 1994 by nearly 20%. The chart below shows the survival rate of CHD for people aged 40 – 90 years.

This disease is much more prevalent in males than females in all age …show more content…

This would most likely be due to the lack of resources in the remote areas. (AIHW 2013)

Prevalence rates for CVD are lower in major cities and higher in remote areas. This would most likely due to the improved medical technology in cities that are able to prevent and detect CVD.

People living in rural and remote areas also have less access to medical resources. Not being near any doctors or specialist may make them at greater risk of getting a CVD because they are unable to have check ups. They would also be a further distance from a hospital to get treatment. This could leave them at a higher risk of dying of a CVD due to lack of access to medical facilities.

Another factor that influences the extent of the problem is being around smokers. Passive smoking is a major risk factor of CVD. Being around people which smoke could leave you at a greater risk of a CVD.

Groups at Risk –
Some of the major groups at risk include:
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
• Socioeconomically disadvantaged people
• People living in rural and remote areas

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