Fewer Australians are dying of heart attacks, the latest Heart Foundation report has found.

The National Heart Foundation says Australians certainly have some ticker; 10,000 fewer people succumbed to heart attacks in 2011 compared to 2001.

But Lyn Roberts, chief executive of the Heart Foundation, says there are still a worrying amount of attacks going on and people should be more wary. Dr Roberts has warned there’s a greatly increased risk of heart attack after the first one, saying “people think that having had a heart attack and had some surgery, or had a stent done, that they're fixed, but indeed they've actually still got heart disease and they need to manage that for the rest of their life."

The burden of heart disease on hospitals and the community remains quite high; 55,000 people were hospitalised because of heart attacks in 2011, putting a significant strain on cardiac rehabilitation services. The biggest risk factor to heart disease is still being overweight or obese. 

More information on heart health and cardiac rehabilitation is available from the Heart Foundation.