Media release
GP prevention better than cure says new report
GPs are helping to reduce and delay the onset of more serious cardiovascular conditions in many of their patients, according to a report released today by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
Patients are seeing GPs more often for cardiovascular check-ups and there has been a decline in GP management of serious cardiovascular problems. This indicates that GPs are raising awareness of the risk factors and helping to modify them.
About 1 in 4 patients at GP consultations have cardiovascular-related conditions.
Many GP patients diagnosed with these problems are also overweight, have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoke cigarettes and drink too much alcohol.
More than 15% of all GP patients have hypertension, around 4% have ischaemic heart disease or heart attacks, about 2% heart failure, another 2% arrhythmias, and nearly 2% 'other vascular diseases'.
Of those GP patients with a cardiovascular problem, more than half had hypertension, around 11% also had diabetes, and a further 11% high cholesterol-a risk factor for cardiovascular disease.
The report, Cardiovascular problems and risk behaviours among patients at general practice encounters in Australia 1998-00 presents an overview of general practice care of cardiovascular problems. It is based on information drawn from about 200,000 doctor-patient encounters between April 1998 and March 2000.
GPs recorded at least one cardiovascular problem at more than 31,000 of these encounters, and prescribed medication for just over 60% of these cases. Patients diagnosed with cardiovascular problems were more likely to be male and significantly older than other patients.
In a smaller sample of about 11,500 cardiovascular patients, 1 in 10 smoked tobacco, almost two-thirds of these patients were either overweight or obese, and 1 in 5 patients reported high levels of alcohol consumption.
Co-author of the report, Joan Henderson, from the AIHW's General Practice Statistics and Classification Unit at the University of Sydney, said that males aged 18-44 years, who already have a cardiovascular problem, were of particular concern. One in four continue to carry excess weight and drink at-risk levels of alcohol.
'The good news is there has been a decline in the rate of cardiovascular problems managed by GPs for patients in all age groups since 1990-91, ' Mrs Henderson said.
24 October 2002
Further information: Mrs
Joan Henderson, tel. 02 9845 8152 (wk),
tel. 0412 971 061, or A/Professor Helena Britt, tel. 02 9845 8150 (wk),
tel. 0411 197 938
For media copies of the report: Publications Officer, tel. 02
6244 1032
Availability: Check the AIHW Publications
Catalogue for details.