The Preventative Health Journal - Australia & New Zealand

The National Heart Foundation of Australia has welcomed a new report proving that illness prevention programs save lives and provide value for money.

The Assessing Cost Effectiveness of Prevention report (ACE-Prevention) endorses the Heart Foundation’s approach to prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease - the number one killer of Australians.

The report finds that a move to screening for absolute cardiovascular risk with targeted treatments, in line with guidelines developed by the Heart Foundation in partnership with other leading chronic disease groups, would not only have an enormous impact on the nation’s health but would also save taxpayer dollars.

Absolute risk assessments combine risk factors to assist GPs to determine a person’s overall risk of developing heart disease. When used effectively, absolute risk assessment ensures that people with, or those at high risk of developing cardiovascular disease receive all of the treatment they need, and none they do not need.

“The Heart Foundation has been at the forefront of preventative health for more than fifty years, and it is delighted that this report confirms its approach that it does indeed save lives”, Heart Foundation National CEO, Dr Lyn Roberts, has said.

“The current lifetime cost of drug treatment for the 2003 Australian population was estimated at $12 billion, averting some 380,000 disability adjusted life years. While this is deemed to be highly cost effective, the new approach could increase health gains by 30% at one third the cost,” she added.

The Heart Foundation said the report was proof that the Australian Government should conduct a full cost-benefit analysis of a vascular health check involving screening, early detection and on-going management of people with or at high risk of cardiovascular disease.

Improving the food supply

“This research also proves that improving the food supply by setting nutrient limits saves lives. We at the Heart Foundation have known this based on overseas experience and we are pleased that the Australian Government has made some progress in this area”, she also said.

“The report found that the Heart Foundation Tick is a useful strategy which improves health and achieves net cost savings. After 20 years of experience with the Heart Foundation Tick and working with food companies to reformulate food products to be healthier, we know that the Tick has had a major impact on Australia’s food supply.

“For example, as a direct result of their commitment to Tick, food companies have reduced 9,662 tonnes of saturated fat and 3,465 tonnes of salt from margarine spreads between 2001 and 2008,” Dr Roberts said.

The Australian Government’s Food and Health Dialogue encourages food companies, Government and health organisations to work together to make voluntary reductions of sodium and saturated fat.

The Dialogue has made some progress with an agreement reached in March this year to make significant reductions in sodium in bread and breakfast cereals by the end of 2013.

Similar strategies in the UK, where the Government is working with the food industry and retailers, have shown impressive results. In Britain the overall amount of salt consumed by adults has fallen by approximately 10%, a reduction that experts have found has saved more than 6,000 lives a year so far.

More comprehensive action is required immediately in Australia. If the Gillard Government really wants to improve the health of Australians it must reconvene and dialogue urgently and push food companies to make widespread changes to improve our food supply, said Dr Roberts.

Physical activity

The Heart Foundation is disappointed that the study does not detail some of the benefits of physical activity. “We know from a public health perspective that physical activity is a major problem in Australia, and this is why we need more comprehensive data included in the recently announced biomedical survey and social marketing campaigns that support active living,” Dr Roberts said.