Summary

This summary booklet provides key findings from the main report Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with coronary heart disease: further perspectives on health status and treatment.

The issues

It is well known that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have much higher death rates from ‘major coronary events’ (often known as heart attacks) than other Australians. But what has not been known is whether this is because they are much more likely to have a heart attack in the first place; have much lower survival; are more complex cases; or receive less treatment—or some combination of these and other factors.