A pilot study of psychosocial factors and cardiovascular risk amongst Aboriginal people living in the Goulburn Valley

Cardiovascular Disease is the leading cause of death in Indigenous and mainstream Australian populations but Indigenous people are affected at younger ages and suffer higher mortality. The Heart Health Project began in 2002 as a collaboration of regional Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations in the Goulburn-Murray region of South-Eastern Australia with university researchers. Its aim was to develop culturally appropriate, community-directed interventions to improve biomedical, environmental and psychosocial factors that influence health behaviours and outcomes, in particular relating to cardiovascular disease (CVD). Dr Rachel Reilly has written about this project in the Journal of Rural and Tropical Public Health.