VICTORIANS in rural and regional areas are dying of heart disease at a worrying rate because of a lack of preventive services and treatment, experts say. A program screening people for cardiovascular disease in country areas has found alarming levels of high blood pressure, cholesterol problems, obesity and depression, all risk factors associated with heart attack and stroke. The head of preventive cardiology at the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, Professor Simon Stewart, said that of the 1500 people screened so far, about 50% had high blood pressure and nearly 70% were abdominally obese. One man appeared to have suffered a heart attack without knowing it. Others had not seen their GP for more than 10 years. "The people who are at higher risk seem to be receiving less drugs, less services, less support," Professor Stewart said. "People are dying needlessly in these rural communities when there is a solution." The "healthy hearts" screening program will go to 10 regional centres over the next two years to test people. The professor said the project had already tapped into unmet demand for preventive services in Bairnsdale, Shepparton and Colac. He has contacted the state and federal governments to propose a permanent screening clinic in regional centres. Professor Dawn DeWitt, head of the school of rural health at Melbourne University, said drugs such as beta blockers and other interventions for cardiovascular disease were underused in rural and regional areas. The rate of new prescriptions per 100,000 males for lipid-lowering drugs was 286 in metropolitan areas, 147 in rural areas and 10 in remote areas.