News that the Ballarat region has the worst cardiovascular health in the state should be sobering news for readers and politicians alike.
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Many health professionals will already be aware of the dire averages that have been brought to light by a National Heart Foundation study.
The statistics indicate almost one in three people in the region have cardiovascular disease, almost one third are obese and an astonishing 85 per cent are insufficiently active for health.
The heart foundation has declared this lack of activity as the worst in the country.
These rates are in some cases almost three times those in inner Melbourne and reflect a worrying trend that regional areas are up to 22 per cent more likely to suffer cardiovascular disease, including strokes and heart attacks, than their metropolitan counterparts.
That Ballarat’s national ranking for heart health was the second worst in the country also demands a closer look at the many and complex causes.
Unfortunately, the familiar culprits line up in this survey; smoking, inactivity, obesity and hypertension and cholesterol. Ballarat likes to sell itself on the image of the healthy regional lifestyle; less congestion and commuting time, open space and country air but somehow this idyllic image is not translating into a healthy lifestyle and its consequent health outcomes.
In one sense every individual’s health is their own responsibility. Lifestyle choices like smoking, with Ballarat ranked third worst place in the country, handicap a region before the best health care or most generous allocation of resources has begun.
Considering the ever-deepening financial blackhole that health care represents, it makes sense to provide more funding for those preventative, educational, self-help and early intervention measures.
At a fraction of the cost of any treatment or cure, they can alleviate the burden on the health care system. In an age when health care is under fire from the economic rationalists, the need to resolve this dire disparity in health outcomes at a minimum of cost is more pressing than ever.
But programs, infrastructure and services focussed on increased exercise, better diet and quitting smoking that at least help people help themselves are often seen as “soft” and the first target of accountants.
But these must be the first step in a long chain that prevents or even delays the rush down the slope to the last safety net of emergency and intensive care.
The recent debate about the need to make Medicare sustainable is logical but the highly controversial moves to enforce co-payments are simply one more stop along this path.
Medicos have already expressed alarm that a generation prone to ignoring health issues will delay check-ups further due to cost.
These are all individual factors in the complex web of health outcomes but the latest report reveals they can collectively add up to what has the colour of a regional health crisis.