Snapshot: Chronic disease in Australia

Chronic disease

The AIHW has released a new chronic disease snapshot online, providing easily accessible and navigable facts and figures on this topic.

What is chronic disease?

Many illnesses and health conditions can be classified under the broad heading of chronic disease. Chronic diseases are mostly characterised by:

Most chronic diseases do not resolve spontaneously, and are generally not cured completely. Some can be immediately life-threatening, such as heart attack and stroke. Others can persist over time and can be intensive in terms of management (e.g. diabetes). Most chronic diseases persist in an individual through life, but are not always the cause of death (e.g. arthritis).

While some chronic diseases such as diabetes and arthritis have been known for centuries, infectious diseases dominated the health scene until the 19th century. For various reasons, including that people are living longer due to better infectious diseases treatment and management, and smoking less, chronic diseases have increased in prevalence in recent times.

The 12 ‘focus’ conditions

There are many conditions and illness that can be considered chronic. Recent focus in surveillance of chronic disease has been on 12 chronic conditions identified in the National Public Health Partnership’s paper, Preventing chronic disease: a strategic framework. These conditions pose a significant burden in terms of morbidity, mortality and health care costs in Australia, and are amenable to preventive measures. The conditions are:

How many people have chronic disease(s)?

AIHW analysis of the 2004–05 National Health Survey conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed that just over 7 million people have at least one chronic condition, and the proportions having a condition increase with age, as do the proportions of people reporting more than one chronic condition.

Chronic disease determinants

Determinants are factors that can influence how likely we are to stay well, or become ill or injured. Determinants can have a positive or negative impact on chronic disease. Those that have a positive effect are often referred to as protective factors while those that have a negative effect are commonly referred to as risk factors.

Many chronic diseases are preventable, or react more favourably in terms of management and medical treatment, in people who adopt healthy behaviours such as controlling body weight, eating nutritious foods, avoiding tobacco use, and increasing physical activity.

For more information on chronic disease visit www.aihw.gov.au/chronic-diseases/