Snapshot of Heart Failure in Australia’s Professor Simon Stewart said there was no denying Ballarat was a heart disease hot spot, but this latest report was a chance to highlight the impact small lifestyle changes could make.

And he wanted Ballarat women to get talking.

“When you ask women what they are most afraid of, health-wise, they’ll say cancer but not heart disease,” Professor Stewart said.

“It’s one of the biggest killers in Australia among women and they need to be making changes and be talking more about it. Women are very much affected but don’t want to talk about heart disease...hopefully this is a start to change.”

The rate of heart failure cases in Ballarat is rated ‘very high’ and more than 15 per cent above the national average, according to the Australian Catholic University MacKillop Institute’s report.

Health care costs in Ballarat, stemming from heart failure, are estimated to be $15.5 million. The rate of new heart failure cases among this city’s adult women aged 45-plus is 22 per cent, compared to nine per cent of new cases among Ballarat men.

In stark contrast, neighbouring regional city Bendigo’s rate of heart failure is ranked ‘very low’ compared to the national average. Geelong’s heart failure rate is ‘high’, deemed 5-15% above the national average, but likely skewed by the proportion of retirees on the Bellarine Peninsula and Surf Coast.

Professor Stewart said it was what we did with the statistics and comparisons that was most important, because these had the potential to make a positive difference.

“One factor is age, and that is something we can’t avoid, but a lot is population dynamics. Some towns are healthier than others, like with blood pressure,” Professor Stewart.

“...You can look at it as the fat bomb, or the healthy towns model I proposed a few years ago – combatting the issue by getting regions to commit to good practice and infrastructure to promote activity.

“Ballarat could be a good place to start.”

Professor Stewart’s healthy towns model puts forward options like rewarding towns which improve their health with motivations, like new sporting facilities.

He said heart failure had an impact on communities on an individual and society level and could be debilitating for whole families, living with a person with heart disease.

The heart failure snapshot estimates there will be 657,000 Australians with heart failure by 2025 and that heart failure is already costing $3.1 billion to the national health care system each year.

Professor Stewart said said many people could live with heart failure for a long time because the body was so good at compensating.

Research comes as drug company Novartis, which funded the report, has its new heart failure therapy drug, Entresto made available on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme from Thursday.