Life expectancy & deaths

A term used to describe something that comes on sharply and is often brief, intense and severe.

The relative number of people in each age group in a population.

A way to remove the influence of age when comparing populations with different age structures. This is usually necessary because the rates of many diseases vary strongly (usually increasing) with age. The age structures of the different populations are converted to the same ‘standard’ structure, and then the disease rates that would have occurred with that structure are calculated and compared.

A degenerative brain disease caused by nerve cell death resulting in shrinkage of the brain. A common form of dementia.

Temporary chest pain or discomfort when the heart's own blood supply is inadequate to meet extra needs, as in exercise.

A cause(s) listed on the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death, other than the underlying cause of death. They include the direct cause(s), and conditions that contributed to the death but were not related to the disease or condition causing death. See also cause(s) of death, direct causes, contributory causes.

A common, chronic inflammatory disease of the air passages that presents as episodes of wheezing, breathlessness and chest tightness due to widespread narrowing of the airways and obstruction of airflow.

Inflammation of the main air passages (bronchi). May be acute or chronic.

The quantified impact of a disease or injury on a population, using the disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) measure.

A large range of diseases where some of the body’s cells become defective, begin to multiply out of control, invade and damage the area around them, and can then spread to other parts of the body to cause further damage.

A condition where there is direct and widespread damage to the heart muscle, weakening it. It can be due to various causes, such as viral infections, obesity and severe alcohol abuse. It can lead to an enlarged, thickened and dilated heart as well as heart failure.

Any disease of the cardiovascular system, namely the heart (cardio) or blood vessels (vascular). Includes angina, heart attack, stroke and peripheral vascular disease. Also known as circulatory disease.

All diseases, morbid conditions or injuries that either resulted in or contributed to death – and the circumstances of the accident or violence that produced any such injuries – that are entered on the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death. Causes of death are commonly reported by the underlying cause of death. See also associated cause(s) of death and multiple causes of death.

Any disorder of the blood vessels supplying the brain or its covering membranes. A notable and major form of cerebrovascular disease is stroke.

A term describing something that is persistent and long lasting.

A diverse group of diseases/conditions, such as heart disease, cancer and arthritis, which tend to be long lasting and persistent in their symptoms or development. Although these features also apply to some communicable diseases (infectious diseases), the term is usually confined to non-communicable diseases.

Serious, progressive and disabling long-term lung disease where damage to the lungs (usually because of both emphysema and chronic bronchitis) obstructs oxygen intake and causes increasing shortness of breath. By far the greatest cause of COPD is cigarette smoking.

The conditions that significantly contributed to the death but were not in the chain of events leading to death. Typically, these causes relate to prior or co-existing long-term health conditions, and social and other circumstances that were involved in the death. They highlight additional health conditions that could be the focus of prevention strategies, for example, the causes that contribute to chronic disease deaths.

A disease due to blockages in the heart’s own (coronary) arteries, expressed as angina or a heart attack.

A group of similar conditions characterised by the gradual impairment of brain function. It is commonly associated with memory loss, but can affect speech, cognition (thought), behaviour and mobility. An individual’s personality may also change, and health and functional ability decline as the condition progresses.

A chronic condition where the body cannot properly use its main energy source – the sugar glucose. This is due to a relative or absolute deficiency in insulin, a hormone produced by the pancreas that helps glucose enter the body’s cells from the bloodstream and be processed by them. Diabetes is marked by an abnormal build-up of glucose in the blood; it can have serious short- and long-term effects. The three main types of diabetes are type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes and gestational diabetes.

The health events that arise from the underlying cause. They can relate to consequences and complications of the underlying cause. Some direct causes reflect the health events experienced at the end of life, or conditions experienced for lengthy periods before death.

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.

A chronic lung disease where over-expansion or destruction of the lung tissue blocks oxygen intake, leading to shortness of breath and other problems.

Life-threatening emergency that occurs when a vessel supplying blood to the heart muscle is suddenly blocked completely by a blood clot. The medical term commonly used for a heart attack is myocardial infarction. See also cardiovascular disease

A condition that occurs when the heart functions less effectively in pumping blood around the body. It can result from a wide variety of diseases and conditions that can impair or overload the heart, such as heart attack, other conditions that damage the heart muscle directly (see cardiomyopathy), high blood pressure, or a damaged heart valve.

An infant death is the death of a live born baby before their first birthday. See also infant mortality.

An acute contagious viral respiratory infection marked by fever, fatigue, muscle aches, headache, cough and sore throat.

The World Health Organization’s internationally accepted classification of death and disease. The Tenth Revision (ICD-10) is currently in use.

An indication of how long a person can expect to live, depending on the age they have already reached. Technically, it is the number of years of life left to a person at a particular age if death rates do not change. The most commonly used measure is life expectancy at birth.

A form completed and certified by a medical practitioner or coroner after someone dies. The MCCD captures demographic information, as well as medical data such as the disease, condition or injuries involved in the death. For more information on death certification in Australia, see Cause of death certification guide.

Number or rate of deaths in a population during a given time period.

Deaths that occur either earlier or later (reverse displacement) than they otherwise would have been expected to. Mortality displacement has been observed in the context of external events, such as heatwaves and the COVID-19 pandemic.

All the causes involved in causing the death (underlying, direct, and contributory). When assessed in combination these describe the most common conditions involved in causing deaths.

These include the underlying cause of death and all other conditions or health events listed on the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death. See also cause(s) of death, associated cause(s) of death, contributory direct causes.

Life-threatening emergency that occurs when a vessel supplying blood to the heart muscle is suddenly blocked completely by a blood clot.

Inflammation of the lungs as a response to infection by bacteria or viruses. The air sacs become flooded with fluid, and inflammatory cells and affected areas of the lung become solid. Pneumonia is often quite rapid in onset and marked by a high fever, headache, cough, chest pain and shortness of breath.

Deaths among people younger than age 75 that are avoidable in the context of the present health care system. They include deaths from conditions that are potentially preventable through individualised care and/or treatable through existing primary or hospital care. They are a subset of premature deaths. The rate of potentially avoidable deaths in Australia is used as an indicator of the health system’s effectiveness. Potentially avoidable deaths are classified using nationally agreed definitions.

A rate is one number (the numerator) divided by another number (the denominator). The numerator is commonly the number of events in a specified time. The denominator is the population ‘at risk’ of the event. Rates (crude, age-specific and age-standardised) are generally multiplied by a number such as 100,000 to create whole numbers.

An event that occurs when an artery supplying blood to the brain suddenly becomes blocked or bleeds. A stroke often causes paralysis of parts of the body normally controlled by that area of the brain, or speech problems and other symptoms. It is a major form of cerebrovascular disease.

The disease or injury that initiated the train of events leading directly to death, or the circumstances of the accident or violence that produced the fatal injury. See also cause(s) of death and associated cause(s) of death

A population’s vital events, such as births and deaths. Collection of this data is used to calculate fertility rates, death rates, life expectancy, and other population statistics. This information is used for public health, policy, and resource planning.