Concerning heart health risks in Nicholls highlight regional health disparities in Victoria

According to the report, Nicholls has been rated the electorate in Victoria with the highest cardiometoblic health risk.

Cardiometabolic risk refers to risk factors that raise your chances of heart problems, stroke, or diabetes.

The report combines results from SiSu Health Stations across Australia recording four main cardiometabolic risk factors including high blood pressure, obesity, daily smoking and known diabetes, and combines it into an index score.

The higher the index score, the better the predicted health outcomes are for the area.

Australia’s current index score is 92 but when compared to the 2018 score of 100, it shows health metrics have not returned to pre-covid levels and the odds of having two or more health risk factors is now eight per cent higher across the country.

Victoria sits at an index score of 94, just above the national index score, however, ranks number four out of the seven states and territories, except the Northern Territory which was exempt from data.

The electorate of Nicholls sits at an index score of 50, well below the national average of 92 and the state’s score of 94.

And in comparison with the Melbourne electorate, which was rated as the electorate with the lowest cardio metabolic health risk in Victoria, Melbourne sits at an index score of 220 - just over four times the score of Nicholls.

In Nicholls, high blood pressure is just over three times the rate of the Melbourne electorate.

Dr Jennifer Coller is a consultant cardiologist at GV Health who also runs her own practice, Connected Cardiology in Shepparton and is passionate about improving regional heart health.

Dr Coller said high blood pressure is one of those risk factors that can go under the radar but can become very deadly if not addressed.

“High blood pressure can be silent but causing damage for a long time and so patients if you don't go to your doctor, nurse, or whoever is your primary health provider and get your blood pressure checked, it can be running high for some years, and you don't feel any symptoms but can have real ill effects from that,” Dr Coller said.

“This is probably one of the biggest things across the community that we can make an impact on is blood pressure so it can cause issues with kidneys, it can affect the risk of having a stroke, it can cause issues with the heart, it can increase the risk of a heart attack and also heart failure where you start to develop fluid retention and become really short of breath.”

Aside from high blood pressure, obesity and diabetes also showed in the report to be higher in Nicholls than Melbourne, highlighting the stark disparities between regional/remote and metro health outcomes.

However, these numbers are not uncommon across the rest of the country, with the report pointing out that the prevalence of cardiometabolic health risk factors, is higher across regional and remote Australia.

It was also noted that socio-economic factors such as income, education, employment status and access to affordable health services play a major role in these outcomes.

Dr Coller said heart health care involves a plethora of healthcare professionals, which can also mean the disparity between metro and for regional and rural patient care, is also caused by a lack of availability across the board.

“Geographical barriers are really significant, and it's not just cardiologists, general practitioners needed, it's also the availability of allied health professionals, so diabetic educators and nurse practitioners trained in cardiology issues,” Dr Coller said.

“All of those factors can lead to significant issues, as well as obviously the disadvantages that people face once they get out.

“Once we leave the metropolitan areas, you get increasing levels of disadvantage.”

These factors of disadvantage can be measured by the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage (IRSD) and the report shows that places with lower IRSD often face challenges like limited healthcare access and lower health literacy which result in poorer health outcomes than their metro counterparts.

The report indicates that the top ten Victorian electorates on the index score all cover Melbourne suburbs who rank seven to 10 on the IRSD index, while electorates with the lowest index score have lower IRSD ratings of one to five.

According to the Heart Foundation’s Heart Maps, the prevalence of smoking, high blood pressure, insufficient exercise and obesity within Greater Shepparton is above both the national and state level rate.

Listen in to this week’s Digging Deeper podcast on Wednesday, November 6 to hear the full interview with Dr Coller.