Calculating Cardiovascular Risk in Australia

Now, new tools equip health care providers to tackle the country’s widespread cardiovascular health challenges.    

Tools to Manage Cardiovascular Risk  

As part of a recent national initiative, experts developed two new tools for addressing cardiovascular risk factors: updated medical guidelines and a disease risk calculator.  

The guidelines provide the most up-to-date, evidence-based recommendations for assessing and managing cardiovascular disease risk, calling on health care providers to: 

1. Identify candidates for risk assessment. This could mean taking a closer look at people between the ages of 45 and 79 and people with diabetes between the ages of 35 and 79
   
2. Incorporate the new Australian cardiovascular disease risk calculator. The tool assesses risk using variables such as age, sex, smoking status, systolic blood pressure, diabetes and cardiovascular medications.
   
3. Pinpoint a patient’s risk category. Categories are designated as high, intermediate and low and represent a person’s chances of having a cardiovascular event in the next five years.
   
4. Communicate the risk. The risk calculator can be used to help explain a person’s risk and includes support tools built into the program to assist with the shared decision-making process. 
5. Manage the patient’s risk in a primary care setting. Management strategies will depend upon the individual’s calculated risk and may include approaches such as lifestyle modifications or prescription medication. 

Work on the 2023 Australian Guideline for Assessing and Managing Cardiovascular Disease Risk and the associated Australian Cardiovascular Disease Risk Calculator was led by the Heart Foundation on behalf of the Australian Chronic Disease Prevention Alliance. It included representation by Diabetes Australia, Kidney Health Australia and Stroke Foundation. 

A New Standard of Care 

Identifying and addressing risk factors – from high blood pressure to diabetes, high LDL cholesterol to obesity – can be an important step toward lowering the deaths caused by cardiovascular disease.  

Updated guidelines are an important tool and set a new standard of care for preventing cardiovascular disease, improving the lives and futures of people across Australia.