OUR STATE OF HEALTH A SHOCKER

State rife with risk factors for cardiac disease Help us demand change

TASMANIANS are tipping the scales at such an alarming rate we have earned the unwanted title of Australia’s fattest state. We also are the country’s cholesterol capital and, with nearly half the population living with high blood pressure, the health report card for Tasmania looks distinctively poorly.

The alarming statistics are revealed in a Heart Foundation study which confirms heart disease as the nation’s biggest killer.

Now the Mercury is helping lead a campaign to combat our sickly state. And you can help.

NEARLY half the population of Tasmania has high blood pressure and it is the cholesterol capital of the nation, a map of Australia’s heart disease risks has found.

The state also boasts the nation’s highest rate of obesity — with 34.2 per cent of the population carrying too many kilos — and a further 35 per cent are overweight.

These are key reasons why, even though it is the nation’s smallest state, Tasmania has three regions in the top 20 for heart disease deaths.

The local government area of Northern Midlands has the highest cholesterol rates in the country, followed by La Trobe ranking number two and Dorset and George Town both in equal sixth place.

Cholesterol and high blood pressure are key risk factors for heart disease, which is Australia’s single leading cause of death.

Smoking rates, another risk factor, are also high in the state, at 17.4 per cent compared to just 14 per cent nationally.

And 19.7 per cent of the population does no exercise at all.

The Heart Foundation has mapped the incidence of heart disease and its risks and found the local government areas of West Coast, George Town and Brighton have the highest death rates from the killer in the state.

Heart Foundation CEO John Kelly says heart disease hot spot areas have a large proportion of residents with significant disadvantage who have difficulty accessing services.

“What we are trying to achieve, if we can, is to educate the population about the warning signs of heart disease and get them to have a heart health check,” he said.

Heart disease is the nation’s leading cause of death taking over 18,000 lives a year. Millions of Australians have key risk factors for the disease, but most are unaware it increases their chance of having a heart attack.

Two thirds of Australians are overweight or obese, six million have high blood pressure, 5.6 million have high cholesterol, 2.5 million smoke daily and two in three do not do enough exercise. Top heart disease mortality hot spots in Tasmania by local government area* West Coast, George Town, Brighton, Circular Head, Derwent Valley, Dorset, Huon Valley, Waratah/ Wynyard, Devonport, Northern Midlands.