Warning Signs of Heart Attack
Also: Heart Foundation Warning Signs campaign
National Heart Foundation of Australia mass media campaign, piloted in Melbourne in October 2009 and run intermittently until August 2013, teaching heart attack warning signs, offering a downloadable action plan and telling people it is OK to call an ambulance (000).
- Years
- 2009–2013
- Country
- Australia
- Budget
- About AUD 3 million in media spend in the Melbourne region alone (Nehme et al. 2017, MJA)
- Topic
- Cardiovascular
- Asks people to
- RecognizeSeek help
- Strategy
- Simple instruction
- Channel
- PrintRadioSocial (organic)TVWebsite
- Audience
- AdultsOlder adultsMen and women aged 45-64.
Evidence
ObservationalPositive
In Melbourne, campaign months saw 10.7% more ambulance attendances for chest pain (15.4% with lag) (Nehme et al. 2017, MJA) and a 6.0% lower incidence of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (Nehme et al. 2017, EHJ). Across five regions, campaign months were linked to 8.8% more chest-pain ambulance call-outs and 5.6% fewer cardiac arrests (Nehme et al. 2023). In Victoria, emergency presentations for acute coronary syndrome by ambulance rose (AOR 1.10) (Eastwood et al. 2021). But in one hospital, patients who recalled the ads were no more likely to have come by ambulance (Cartledge et al. 2017), and symptom awareness fell steadily after the campaign stopped: by 2020 one in five adults could not name any symptom (Bray et al. 2023).
Sponsor (who paid)
- National Heart Foundation of Australia NGO, creator and funder
Credits (who made it)
Not recorded yet.
Related campaigns
Sources
- Nehme Z et al. Effect of a mass media campaign on ambulance use for chest pain. Med J Aust 2017;206:30-35 evaluation · 2017 · DOI 10.5694/mja16.00341 · PMID 28076734
- Nehme Z et al. Impact of a public awareness campaign on out-of-hospital cardiac arrest incidence and mortality rates. Eur Heart J 2017;38:1666-1673 evaluation · 2017 · DOI 10.1093/eurheartj/ehw500 · PMID 28329083
- Nehme Z et al. Effect of a national awareness campaign on ambulance attendances for chest pain and out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Resuscitation 2023;191:109932 evaluation · 2023 · DOI 10.1016/j.resuscitation.2023.109932 · PMID 37562665
- Eastwood K et al. Impact of a mass media campaign on presentations and ambulance use for acute coronary syndrome. Open Heart 2021;8:e001792 evaluation · 2021 · DOI 10.1136/openhrt-2021-001792 · PMID 34663748
- Cartledge S et al. The barriers associated with emergency medical service use for acute coronary syndrome: the awareness and influence of an Australian public mass media campaign. Emerg Med J 2017;34:466-471 evaluation · 2017 · DOI 10.1136/emermed-2016-206396 · PMID 28289037
- Bray JE et al. Declining Public Awareness of Heart Attack Warning Symptoms in the Years Following an Australian Public Awareness Campaign. Heart Lung Circ 2023;32:497-505 evaluation · 2023 · DOI 10.1016/j.hlc.2023.01.010 · PMID 36801125
Research notes
Dates, channels, target ages and Melbourne media spend read from the MJA article (fetched 2026-10-23). Sources disagree on the start (2009 pilot vs 2010 national). The 'It's OK to call 000' line and a TV ad showing a dead man with chest electrodes were seen only in search results (MJA InSight, The New Daily): verify before using as tagline. Nehme/Eastwood/Bray are partly the same Monash/Ambulance Victoria group; the Heart Foundation's own HeartWatch survey data were used by Bray 2023. A follow-on stepped-wedge trial (Heart Matters, Victoria 2021-2023, Bray et al. JAMA Netw Open 2026) tested community heart attack education; not recorded here.
Record cases/au-heart-foundation-warning-signs.json, updated 2026-10-23· Link to this campaign