So you go to Bunnings for advice about the best paint for your decking, the best trimmer for your hedge, and what’s the best way to look good in your tool belt.

What about checking out if you’re at higher risk of having a stroke or heart attack any time soon? There’s a gadget involved, so that’s always fun.

SiSU Health Stations have been placed in 30 Bunnings stores across NSW in a ground-breaking trial. These are nifty devices that allow people to carry out free self-service health checks.

In just five minutes, less time than it takes to stir a pot of matte finish, the machine measures your blood pressure, heart rate, body fat percentage, height, BMI, weight, smoking status, perceived stress, and diabetes risk.

If the check uncovers hypertension, you’ll be referred for medical care or lifestyle guidance (which might mean skipping the sausage sizzle). And you can track their progress with a free app.

OK, but why Bunnings?

It’s part of a plan by Alta Schutte – a professor of cardiac, vascular and metabolic medicine at UNSW – who wants to make Australia a world leader in controlling hypertension, or high blood pressure.

We used to be good at it. But we’ve gone backwards – trailing a long way behind Canada for goodness sake.

“But we can’t address high blood pressure to prevent many strokes, heart attacks and other life-threatening conditions if we don’t know who needs treatment,” said Schutte, who is a co-leader of the National Hypertension Taskforce, launched by the federal government two years ago.

One challenge for researchers is that the profile of people most at risk of high blood pressure has changed.

One of the key age groups at risk of hypertension is men aged 25-49.

By the way, hypertension is still the top risk factor for death in Australia.

“Raised blood pressure is increasingly linked to stroke deaths in men aged 25-49 years, but they wouldn’t think of themselves as being at risk,” Schutte said.

The fear is that this age group has fallen between the cracks.

She said the contribution of raised systolic blood pressure to stroke deaths and DALYs (disability-adjusted life years) in males aged 25–49 years was higher than other age groups.

“It’s in excess of 60 per cent and increasing steeply between 2010 and 2019,” she said.

There has also been an increase in women of that age, but not so steeply.

The curse of manly reluctance

Certainly, you’d have to drag many of these men kicking and screaming into a doctor’s office. Or even the pharmacy, where blood-pressure tests are free.

“We needed to think creatively about reaching this and other groups at high risk, in the places they already go, and Bunnings stores are a great way to do that,” she said.

“By making it convenient for men to check their health at a friendly, familiar location, we hope for high engagement.”

And Bunnings is perceived to be more bloke-friendly and less threatening than a health-care setting?

“Absolutely,” Schutte said. “That is the idea behind the initiative.”

And how is it working?

“So far we see for those checking blood pressure at Bunnings, two out of three are men.”

When the problem became apparent

In 2009 it was one in five, or about four million, Australian adults  had hypertension.

That was 20 per cent of the population 15 years ago – and today it stands at 34 per cent. Or one in three – more than six million.

Half of those people don’t know they’ve got it. Nor are they aware of the attendant risks to their hearts, arteries, brains, kidneys, and eyes.

Only a third of those with hypertension (32 per cent) have it under control and within a healthy range.

Schutte’s taskforce recently launched a national roadmap that aims for at least 70 per cent of people with hypertension to have it controlled with treatment by 2030.

The only way to see if someone’s blood pressure is in the unhealthy range, or not, is for them to have it checked regularly.

“We lag behind other similar countries, but we shouldn’t,” she said.

“We have the tools to identify and treat blood pressure and should be using them.”

You’ll find those tools in aisle three.

Bunnings was only too happy to be part of the trial. Chief people officer Damian Zahra told The New Daily: “We know how important monitoring blood pressure can be to staying well and we’re pleased to play a small part in making this trial possible.”

Participating Bunnings stores:

Albury, Alexandria, Armidale, Bathurst, Blacktown, Campbelltown, Chatswood, Coffs Harbour, Crossroads, Dubbo, Forbes, Forster, Glendale, Goulburn, Grafton, Griffith, Kembla Grange, Kempsey, Lismore, Narrabri, Nowra, Padstow, Penrith, Port Macquarie, Shellharbour, Smithfield, Tamworth, Valley Heights, Villawood and Wagga Wagga.