Australian Centre for Monitoring Population Health

Every year in Australia, millions of years of healthy life are lost because of injury, illness or premature deaths. This loss of healthy life is called the ‘burden of disease’. Information on burden of disease and injuries is important for monitoring population health and provides an evidence base to inform health policy and service planning.

The Australian Burden of Disease Study 2022 includes national estimates for 220 diseases and injuries.

This is the fourth report to monitor the National Cervical Screening Program since it introduced 5-yearly HPV tests in December 2017. In 2018–2021, more than 4.2 million people aged 25–74 participated, and in 2021, 11% of screening HPV tests performed were positive for HPV types that cause cervical cancer. Cervical cancer incidence and mortality remained low at 11 new cases and 2 deaths per 100,000 women, respectively.

Currently, there is no direct way to count the number of new stroke or acute coronary syndrome (ACS)  events at the national level. Instead, estimates are derived using algorithms, based on unlinked national hospitalisation and deaths data. This report aims to fill this gap. It presents the incidence of stroke and ACS derived using linked data from the National Integrated Health Services Information Analysis Asset (NIHSI AA).

This project used the National Integrated Health Services Information Analysis Asset to explore factors that affect medication use among 67,800 people who were hospitalised for coronary heart disease. It found that younger patients and women were among those people less likely to be dispensed cardiovascular medicines and to still be taking them 1 year after leaving hospital. This information may inform strategies to improve medication use among these groups.