Data mapped by the National Heart Foundation of Australia shows the Bendigo region had one of the highest rates of heart-related hospital admissions in Victoria from 2012 to 2014, second only to the Shepparton region.

The Bendigo region includes the City of Greater Bendigo, Loddon, Mount Alexander and Macedon Ranges municipalities.

Of these, the City of Greater Bendigo had the highest rate of hospital admissions, which was significantly above average and fourth-highest in the state.

Loddon Shire ranked the worst in the state for hospitalisations and Campaspe Shire was not far behind.

“What we’re finding across the country is a definite correlation between social disadvantage… and the admission rates,” Heart Foundation chief executive officer Kellie-Ann Jolly said.

She said this disadvantage included access to education, employment, housing and social support.

Ms Jolly said because healthy food was often the more expensive option, so those with low incomes would often choose unhealthier foods out of necessity.

Lower education levels also had an impact, she said, because people were not always aware of the link between nutrition and exercise, and heart disease.

Ms Jolly said it was also often more difficult for people in rural areas to incorporate physical activity into their everyday lives because they were more reliant on cars to get to work and other places.

But Central Goldfields Shire, the area of greatest disadvantage in central Victoria and the second-most disadvantaged in the state, bucked the trend, with a low rate of heart-related hospitalisations that was considerably below average.

There were also significant proportions of the population with risk factors for heart disease in central Victoria.

Forty-four per cent of people in the Bendigo region had high cholesterol, the second-highest prevalence in the state and the ninth-highest in the whole country.

The national average is below 33 per cent.

The prevalence of high blood pressure, people doing insufficient exercise and obesity was also above national average.

Ms Jolly said it was vital for people, especially those over the age of 45, to get tested for risk factors, such as cholesterol.