Potentially avoidable deaths Data dictionary

Number of potentially avoidable deaths in hospital for people with disability compared with people without disability per 100,000¹

2020–21

2021–22

People with/without disability^1,2

Number of potentially avoidable deaths in hospital for people with/without disability^3,4

Number of people with/without disability

Number of potentially avoidable deaths in hospital for people with/without disability, divided by the number of potentially avoidable death of people with/without disability.

The proportion is expressed as a rate per 100,000 people.

100,000 x (Numerator ÷ Denominator)

1. Data for this measure came from the National Health Data Hub (NHDH). For more information, see Data source – National Health Data Hub.

2. People with disability include individuals who received disability-related government payments or services between 2020–21 and 2021–22. This does not represent all people with disability. As a result, people with disability who did not receive these disability-related government payments or services are counted under people without disability in these data. It is an interim method agreed for use through the National Disability Data Asset co-governance arrangements until data improvement initiatives make more suitable additional data available. More information can be found here: NDDA Disability Indicators Explanatory Notes.

3. The analysis uses a modification of the agreed method to calculate potentially avoidable deaths from the National Healthcare Agreement. In this analysis, deaths must have occurred during admitted patient care or during an emergency department visit in addition to the agreed methodology. More information can be found at National Health Agreement: PI 16–Potentially avoidable deaths, 2022.

4. Research suggests that the established methodology for attributing a death as a potentially avoidable death can lead to misattribution of cause of death for people with disability and potential under-classification of deaths in the disability population as potentially avoidable deaths (lowering the rate for the disability population).

5. Validation work completed for the first-generation of NDDA disability indicators has found that the indicators do not capture older Australians with disability as well as other age groups. Older Australians are both more likely to have disability and a higher rate of potentially avoidable deaths. This under-representation potentially has inverse effects on the populations of both the people with disability and people without disability used in this analysis (lowering the overall rate of potentially avoidable deaths for the disability population and increasing the rate of potentially avoidable deaths for the non-disability population).

6. This analysis excludes measuring avoidable deaths and the population from WA and NT due to data availability. For 2021–22 data, ACT data are unavailable.

7. Resources to assist with the interpretation of this measure can be found here:

• AIHW (2025) Potentially avoidable deaths in hospital in people with and without disability. Canberra: AIHW.

• Falster M and Jorm L (2017) A guide to the potentially avoidable deaths indicator in Australia, Centre for Big Data Research in Health, University of New South Wales in consultation with the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Sydney.

• AIHW (2020) Mortaility patterns among people using disability support services: 1 July 2013 to 30 June 2018 (summary report), Cat no. DIS 76, Canberra, AIHW.

• NDIS Commission (2023) Potentially avoidable deaths in people with disability in Australia in 2013–2018: Contributing causes and risk factors: final report, NDIS Commission, Canberra.