Cardiovascular Disease DHB Toolkit

Cardiovascular Disease
DHB Toolkit

Date of publication: February 2003

Summary
Publication availability

Summary

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in New Zealand, accounting for 41 percent of all deaths in 1999, thus it has a large impact on the delivery of health services. Of the cardiovascular diseases, coronary artery disease is the major cause of death, followed by stroke, which is the greatest cause of disability in older people.
The burden of cardiovascular disease is greatest among Māori and Pacific peoples, as the following evidence indicates.

Mortality from all cardiovascular diseases is higher among Maori than the general population. Coronary heart disease is the leading single cause of death for Māori.
Māori have the highest rate of hospital admissions for heart failure (nearly three times that of Europeans/others).
Pacific peoples have the highest mortality rate for cerebrovascular disease and the highest hospital discharge rate for stroke.
The chance of being dependent at 12 months post stroke is three times higher among Māori and Pacific peoples than among Europeans who have a stroke.
Māori and Pacific peoples have the highest discharge rates for both rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease.

One of the 13 population health objectives of the New Zealand Health Strategy is to reduce the incidence and disease impact of cardiovascular disease in New Zealand.
In addressing this priority a Cardiovascular Expert Advisory Group was established to assist the Ministry of Health to identify those cardiovascular areas that would have the greatest population impact. Following a review of the evidence, an action plan was developed, which includes the following priority areas:

cardiovascular risk screening and management
acute coronary syndromes
secondary prevention
cardiac rehabilitation
organised stroke care
cardiovascular disease and Māori
cardiovascular disease and Pacific peoples.

This toolkit provides evidence on each of the cardiovascular priority areas and information on cardiovascular tools currently available, tools under development and tools for future development.

Publication availability

The toolkit is available in Word and PDF format below:

Cardiovascular Disease Toolkit (Word, 494 KB)
Cardiovascular Disease Toolkit (PDF, 250 KB)

Read our copyright information

Go to information about ordering and downloading publications