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Better prevention and management of heart failure in Aboriginal Australians
Author(s) -
Teng TiewHwa K,
Hung Joseph,
Katzenellenbogen Judith M,
Bessarab Dawn C,
Thompson Sandra C
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/mja14.01393
Subject(s) - graph , heart failure , management of heart failure , computer science , medicine , cardiology , theoretical computer science
The primary prevention of HF in Aboriginal people is paramount and must occur concomitantly with treatment efforts. This requires population-based approaches to address underpinning social determinants of health5 (eg, poverty, marginalisation, environmental factors); cardiovascular risk factor reduction (smoking, obesity, diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidaemia); increased physical activity; and early detection and management of structural heart disease. Prevention must include multisectoral strategies to address the structural–systemic factors that undermine Aboriginal people’s opportunities throughout life. Additionally, screening, monitoring and treatment of HF antecedents in the community setting are needed to reduce HF incidence further, with suitably trained Aboriginal people central to delivering culturally appropriate health education. Further, primary care health professionals should be trained to detect subclinical HF using echocardiography6 and to manage predisposing risk factors optimally.