DYSLIPIDAEMIA

Dyslipidaemia refers to a number of different lipid disorders (that is, conditions where there are too many fats in the blood). Estimates of dyslipidaemia from the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Measures Survey (NATSIHMS) can be used to determine how many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have at least one lipid disorder and therefore have an increased risk of heart disease.

Data source and definitions In the NATSIHMS, a person was classified as having dyslipidaemia if they had one or more of the following: Taking cholesterol-lowering medication Total cholesterol greater than or equal to 5.5 mmol/L HDL cholesterol less than 1.0 mmol/L for men and less than 1.3 mmol/L for women LDL cholesterol greater than or equal to 3.5 mmol/L Triglycerides greater than or equal to 2.0 mmol/L. In order to get an accurate reading for dyslipidaemia, people were required to fast for 8 hours or more beforehand. The results presented here refer only to those people who did fast (approximately 78% of adults who participated in the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Measures Survey (NATSIHMS)).

In 2012–13, around two in three (65.3%) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults had dyslipidaemia. This comprised 13.9% who took some form of cholesterol-lowering medication and 51.4% who took no medication but had either high total cholesterol, low HDL cholesterol, high LDL cholesterol or high triglyceride levels based on their test results. Overall, rates of dyslipidaemia were similar for both men and women.

After adjusting for age difference between the two populations, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were more likely than non-Indigenous people to have dyslipidaemia (rate ratio of 1.1). Although the overall age pattern was similar to that for non-Indigenous Australians, rates of dyslipidaemia were significantly higher for middle aged Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people compared with their non-Indigenous counterparts. For example, 73.8% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 35–44 years had dyslipidaemia compared with 59.2% of non-Indigenous people in this age group.



The results showed that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were no more likely than their non-Indigenous counterparts to have dyslipidaemia based on their test results alone. In fact, the difference between the two populations was entirely driven by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people being more likely than non-Indigenous people to take some form of cholesterol-lowering medication (rate ratio of 1.6), particularly at younger ages. For example, cholesterol medication use in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population noticeably increased from 7.8% among those aged 35–44 years to 23.7% of those aged 45–54 years. This was about 10 years earlier than the corresponding increase in the non-Indigenous population, which occurred between 45–54 years and 55 years over.



In 2012–13, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in remote areas were more likely than those living in non-remote areas to have dyslipidaemia (79.4% compared with 62.8%). Rates were particularly high among those in very remote areas, where around eight in ten (81.1%) people had dyslipidaemia compared with around six in ten (58.7%) people living in major cities. Interestingly, this was not due to differences in the proportions of adults taking cholesterol-lowering medication. Instead, it was due to Aboriginal and Torres Islander people in remote areas being more likely than those in non-remote areas to have dyslipidaemia based on their test results alone.



As with all the cardiovascular disease biomarkers, dyslipidaemia was strongly associated with obesity. In fact in 2012–13, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who were obese were almost twice as likely to have dyslipidaemia compared with those of normal weight or underweight (79.9% compared with 42.5%). Interestingly though, there was no association found between dyslipidaemia and smoking.

For more information on dyslipidaemia, see Tables 3, 4, 13 and 17 on the Downloads page of this publication. Back to Top