Almost half of Australian general practice patients requiring cholesterol management for secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease fail to meet target LDL-C targets, a new report shows.

Analysis of real-world primary care data, published on Wednesday by the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute in Melbourne, also shows that women are less likely to be optimally managed than men.

The report makes the case for more aggressive management of lipids in the secondary prevention setting and calls for a review of PBS restrictions on newer cholesterol-lowering medications.

Baker Institute director, cardiologist Professor Tom Marwick, says the issue is not that patients aren’t being treated, but that they are “not being treated enough”.