Transcript Measures of the health status of Australians

Measures of the health status of
Australians
Sources of health data and statistics
in Australia
• Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), Australia’s national
statistical agency, concentrates on demographic and
economic data. The ABS gauges the health of the Australian
population by measuring mortality (death), morbidity
(illness), lifestyle factors, disability, and the use of health
services. www.abs.gov.au
• Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW)
www.aihw.gov.au is Australia’s national agency for health
and welfare statistics and information.
• Department of Human Services (DHS), Victoria
www.dhs.vic.gov.au which is also an important source of
health information. The DHS is Victoria’s largest government
department. It plans, funds and delivers health, community
and housing services.
• www.health.vic.gov.au
The key measures or indicators of
health
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Life expectancy
Health adjusted life expectancy (HALE)
Mortality
Under 5 mortality rate
Morbidity
Burden of disease
Disability adjusted life years (DALY)
Incidence
Prevalence
Note: add these terms to your glossary you must know
all of these definitions for the exam
Life expectancy
• Life expectancy at birth : estimates the
average number of years a newborn can
expect to live if existing mortality patterns
continue over the individual’s lifetime.
Australian born in 2003–05 could expect to
live an average of
• 83.3 years for females
• 78.5 years for males.
• Life expectancy can be stated for people at older
ages. Life expectancy at age 65, for example, is a
statement of the age, on average, people
currently aged 65 could be expected to live to,
taking account of current death rates. Life
expectancy at 65 does not take account of the
deaths that have already occurred at a younger
age among this age group – it only looks at what
is likely to occur to these people in the future, as
they get older
• Complete activity on page 12
Health adjusted life expectancy
(HALE)
• Health-adjusted life expectancy (HALE): the
number of years lived without reduced
functioning due to ill health.
• HALE is calculated for different age groups –
HALE at birth, HALE at 65 years old and so on.
Australia is fortunate in having among the
highest healthy life expectancy figures in the
world.
Mortality
• Mortality rate : measures the proportion of a
population who die in a period of one year.
• For example, in 2005 there were 130 700
deaths in Australia. Of these, 23 570 deaths
(or 18 per cent of all deaths) were caused by
coronary heart disease. This data is from
death certificates, which show the cause of
death as well as demographic data such as
age, sex and place of residency.
• To allow comparisons with other countries deaths
are expressed as a death (mortality) rate whereby
the number of deaths is expressed in relation to
population size. Previously we saw that Australia
had 130 700 deaths in 2005 from a population of
20.4 million people. So the overall death rate for
Australia in 2005 was 640.7 deaths per 100 000
people or 6.4 deaths per 1000 people. This is
sometimes called the crude death rate.
• Crude death rate: the overall proportion of a
population who die in a given period of time.
• measures of mortality commonly used to
measure the health status of a population:
• The infant mortality rate refers to the risk of an
infant dying between birth and one year of age in
a given year; usually given per 1000 live births.
• The under-5 mortality rate (U5MR) refers to the
number of deaths occurring in a given population
of under-5 children during a specified time
period; usually given per 1000 live births.
• The maternal mortality ratio refers to the
number of women dying from pregnancy-related
causes; usually given per 100 000 live births.
Leading cause of death in Australia
• Complete activity 1.2 C page 17 and 18
Years of life lost (YLL)
• Years of life lost (YLL): a measure of how many
years of expected life are lost due to
premature death.
• Diseases that cause death at an early age are a
greater ‘burden’ on society than deaths that
occur very late in life.
Morbidity
• morbidity refers to ill health in an individual
and to levels of ill health in a population or
group. Morbidity data includes levels of
disease, illness, disability and injury.
• The term disease refers to a physical or
mental disturbance involving symptoms such
as pain or feeling unwell, dysfunction or tissue
damage, especially if these symptoms and
signs form a recognisable clinical pattern.
Disease and injury
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Can cause :
Suffering
disability
premature death
impose significant costs on society in terms of use of
the health care system, and days off work because of
illness or to care for people who are ill
reduced quality of life.
Leading cause of disease include :
cancer -19 per cent of Australia’s total
cardiovascular disease (18 per cent)
mental disorders (13 per cent).
Prevalence and Incidence
• Prevalence: the total number of people
experiencing a condition during a specified
period of time (such as a particular year),
given either as the total number of cases, or
as a rate showing the proportion of the
population with the condition.
• Incidence: the number or rate of new cases of
the condition during a given period.
Burden of disease and disability
adjusted life years (DALY s)
• early 1990s, the World Health Organization developed
a method for combining morbidity and mortality data
into a single measure of the burden of disease for
different health problems: the disability-adjusted life
year (DALY). It used the DALY in calculating what it
termed the ‘global burden of disease’ The DALY for a
particular disease or illness is the sum of the years of
life lost (YLL) due to premature death, and the
equivalent ‘healthy’ years lost due to disability (YLD).
• DALY = YLL + YLD
• One DALY therefore represents a healthy year of life
lost
• The Victorian Department of Human Services
explains the importance of the burden of disease:
• The burden of disease, therefore, measures the
gap between current health status and an ideal
situation in which everyone lives into old age free
of disease and disability. As such, it indicates the
‘unfinished’ health agenda, identifying areas in
which additional health gains can be made.
• Complete activity on page 21 and 22