Heart Foundation
Seven in 10 Aussies yet to hit their 50s have a ‘heart age’ above their actual age, new figures reveal – and millions do not know their blood pressure or cholesterol numbers.
The Heart Foundation has released the figures after close to two million Australians used its Heart Age Calculator to understand their risk of having a heart attack or stroke, and what to do next.
One in five Australians aged 35 to 75 have taken the online heart age test, which compares your heart age to your biological age, since it started in 2019.
The heart health charity warns the scorecard for people in their 30s and 40s is a big concern.
Analysis of a sample of more than 71,000 heart age test results for Australians aged 35-49 shows:
- Seven in 10 Australians had a heart age above their biological age.
- One in eight in this group had a heart age at least six years above their actual age.
- Nearly 60% did not know their blood pressure levels, and more than four in five (82%) did not know their cholesterol readings. This equates to about 2.9 million Australians in this age group not knowing their blood pressure and four million not knowing their cholesterol level.
- Of those who knew their numbers, one in four had high blood pressure and two in five had a high total cholesterol level.
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