More than one in three Victorians are “ticking time bombs” at risk of heart attack or stroke due to high blood pressure, Heart Foundation chief executive officer Kellie-Ann Jolly said.

Overall 40 per cent of regional Victorians are likely to have high blood pressure, compared to 32 per cent of city dwellers, the report showed. However people in regional and rural Victoria were more likely to have their high blood pressure under control.

In 2014 the foundation released figures which showed Ballarat had the fifth highest heart attack rate in Australia. The following year the foundation found Ballarat’s population to be the second largest in Victoria, with almost a third of residents classified as obese. 

A similar regional breakdown will be released later this year – but Ballarat’s high levels of physical inactivity, obesity, and smoking will likely keep the city in a high risk category, Ms Jolly said.

“Physical inactivity, smoking, being overweight, all those things put you at greater risk and overall in Ballarat you see all those risk factors are higher on the whole than in the city,” she said.

Nearly half of regional Victorians have their high blood pressure under control, compared to 32 per cent of city dwellers. Ms Jolly said this could be partly attributed to people needing to see their doctor more often due to having multiple conditions.

“Our regional communities are more likely to speak to their GP about blood pressure than in Melbourne which was a surprise,” she said. “We do find in the regional areas people have multiple things - they might have diabetes, they might be obese and they might be going to their doctor more often.

“The other thing that’s happening in the country is people have a better relationship with their GP where in the city now you get these big medical clinics where you may not be seeing the same GP every time.” Heart Week runs from Sunday, April 30 to Saturday, May 6.