Heart disease to cost economy $18b (Australia)

Heart attack and chronic chest pain will cost the Australian economy an estimated $18 billion this year - a burden that could be avoided. The figure covers a range of costs from hospital bills through to lost productivity resulting from 90,000 new cases of Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS). ACS is a preventable disease, The Heart Foundation's Professor Derek Chew said at the launch of new Access Economics research on Wednesday. "If we all exercised more, if we all controlled our cholesterol, stopped smoking, all those sorts of things, it is estimated that 90 per cent of those heart attacks would not occur," Professor Chew said. The study estimated there will be just over 87,500 ACS events in 2009 - split between approximately 55,000 heart attacks and 32,500 chest pain events. Most of these will occur in men (61 per cent) and they will lead to 10,000 deaths - 9News