Project Summary
A trial to test whether NSW hairdressing salons can improve heart health in women by effectively encouraging them to have a heart health check with their general practitioners.
What is the issue for NSW?
This research aims to address inequity in prevention of heart disease in women in NSW. Women are not being adequately screened for heart disease and have low awareness of their heart risk factors. This leads to suboptimal treatment and bad outcomes. Women are also more likely than men to have serious complications after a heart attack. The cost of heart attacks in Australia is estimated at $5 billion a year. It also highlights the need to identify a novel way to engage women in heart risk screening and promote physician awareness and action.
What does the research aim to do and how?
This study aims to increase the number of women having a heart health check with their general practitioner and thereby improve their heart health.
It is a trial comparing ‘general health advice’ with ‘specific advice of heart disease risk factors’ in women and their need to have them assessed.
It will be conducted in hairdressing salons. Women will be invited to participate in a salon and will complete a survey and receive a letter to take to their general practitioner.
Questionnaires and Medicare data will be used to assess if the study intervention was successful.