Chronic conditions is an Australia's health topic

Chronic conditions are an ongoing cause of substantial ill health, disability and premature death, making them an important global, national and individual health concern. Also referred to as chronic diseases, non-communicable diseases or long-term health conditions, chronic conditions are generally characterised by their long-lasting and persistent effects.

This page highlights some of the most common chronic conditions in Australia with results presented by different population groups including by sex, age and across areas. The impact of living with chronic conditions is described as well as the health services used to treat and manage them.

Conditions included in analysis

Analysis on this page includes all chronic conditions (over 100 conditions) from the Australian Burden of Disease study (ABDS) disease list (AIHW 2021). This list is used in analysis of the following data sources: ABDS Database, National Hospital Morbidity Database, National Mortality Database.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) National Health Survey (NHS) collects self-reported information on long-term health conditions that were current at the time of the survey interview and had lasted, or were expected to last, for 6 months or more. There were 72 conditions from the ABDS disease list that could be reasonably identified in the NHS data (Table 1). These are referred to as ‘selected long-term health conditions’ on this page. Estimates of the prevalence of these conditions are from AIHW analysis of the ABS 2022 NHS (ABS 2023a) and will differ to estimates based on different data sources and sets of conditions (see Chronic condition estimates vary).

How common are chronic conditions?

Chronic conditions are common and become more common with age

Among people of all ages, an estimated 15.4 million (61%) were living with at least one of the selected long-term health conditions in 2022. This ranged from 28% of people aged 0–14 to 94% of people aged 85 and over.

Based on AIHW analysis of the ABS 2022 NHS (ABS 2023a), anxiety and back problems were the most common of the selected long-term health conditions among people of all ages in 2022.

While these conditions are common, their prevalence (see glossary) varied by sex and age (Figure 1).

It is estimated that in 2022, among males of all ages:

  • 2.1 million (16%) were living with back problems
  • 1.9 million (15%) were living with anxiety
  • 1.5 million (12%) were living with deafness or hearing loss.

Among females of all ages:

  • 2.9 million (22%) were living with anxiety
  • 1.9 million (15%) were living with back problems
  • 1.8 million (14%) were living with depression.

By age group, the most common of the selected long-term health conditions in 2022 were estimated to be:

  • anxiety: with 1.3 million (16%) people aged 0–24 and 1.6 million (22%) people aged 25–44 living with anxiety
  • back problems: with 1.5 million (23%) people aged 45–64 living with back problems
  • deafness or hearing loss: with 1.3 million (32%) people aged 65 and over were living with deafness or hearing loss.

Figure 1: Most common long- term health conditions by sex and age, 2022

This chart shows that in 2022 the estimated proportion of people living with anxiety tended to decrease with age from 22% among people aged 25–44 to 15% among those aged 65 and over.

For more information on the prevalence of some of the most common chronic conditions, see Cancer, Chronic musculoskeletal conditions, Chronic respiratory conditions, Dementia, Diabetes, Heart, stroke and vascular disease and Mental health.

Variation by population groups

Socioeconomic areas

Chronic conditions tend to be more common among people living in areas of most disadvantage (lowest socioeconomic areas) than among those living in areas of least disadvantage (highest socioeconomic areas).  

In 2022, the estimated prevalence of having one or more long-term health condition was:

  • 56% in the areas of least disadvantage
  • 63% in the areas of most disadvantage (AIHW analysis of ABS 2023a).

The prevalence of many individual conditions follows this same pattern. For example, among people of all ages in 2022 the estimated prevalence of:

  • osteoarthritis ranged from 6.5% in the areas of least disadvantage to 11% in the areas of most disadvantage
  • asthma ranged from 10% in areas of least disadvantage to 13% in areas of most disadvantage
  • deafness or hearing loss ranged from 7.7% in the areas of least disadvantage to 12.4% in the areas of most disadvantage (AIHW analysis of ABS 2023a).

Socioeconomic areas are measured using the Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas 2016 Index of Relative Socio-Economic Disadvantage based on area of residence.

For more information on how chronic conditions vary by socioeconomic area see Cancer, Chronic musculoskeletal conditions, Chronic respiratory conditions, Dementia, Diabetes, Heart, stroke and vascular disease and Mental health.

Remoteness areas

The prevalence of long-term health conditions tends to be higher outside of Major cities. In 2022, having one or more long-term health conditions affected an estimated:

  • 58% of people living in Major cities
  • 67% of people living in Inner regional areas and in Outer regional and remote areas (AIHW analysis of ABS 2023a).

In 2022, based on self-reported data from the NHS, deafness or hearing loss was more common among people living outside of Major cities (Major cities: 8.3%, Inner regional areas: 13%, Outer regional and remote areas: 14%). In contrast, the prevalence of asthma was similar across remoteness areas (Major cities: 10%, Inner regional areas: 12%, Outer regional and remote areas: 12%). For more information on how chronic conditions vary by remoteness areas see Rural and remote health.

Remoteness is classified according to the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) 2021 Remoteness Areas structure based on area of residence.

Impact

Living with chronic conditions can have a substantial impact on an individual’s health and requires considerable investment in Australia’s health system.

Burden of disease

Burden of disease measures the loss of healthy life in a population due to living with, and dying prematurely from, a disease or injury. Total disease burden is expressed in terms of disability-adjusted life years, or DALY (see glossary), which represents the number of years of healthy life lost within the population.

The top 5 leading causes of disease burden in 2023 were chronic conditions.

Ranked by the number of years of healthy life lost by Australians due to each condition, these were:

  • coronary heart disease: responsible for 305,000 DALY
  • dementia: 248,000 DALY
  • back pain and problems: 242,000 DALY
  • anxiety disorders: 220,000 DALY
  • chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: 205,000 DALY (AIHW 2023a).

In 2023, Australians lost an estimated 4.4 million years of healthy life due to chronic conditions, equivalent to 85% of the total disease burden in that year (AIHW analysis of ABDS 2023). This proportion remained largely stable between 2003 and 2023 (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Percentage of total burden of disease due to chronic and non-chronic conditions and injury, 2003 to 2023

This chart shows that between 2003 and 2023 the proportion of disease burden for each disease type was largely stable. Injuries contributed around 6% of the total disease burden while non-chronic conditions contributed around 9%.

For more information on definitions and the burden of disease associated with these conditions, see Burden of disease.

Deaths

In 2022, chronic conditions were recorded as an underlying or associated cause of death for 171,500 deaths. This was 90% of all deaths, a rate of 659 per 100,000 population, based on AIHW analysis of the AIHW National Mortality Database (NMD).

Chronic conditions contributed to between 89 and 92 per cent of all deaths each year from 2002 to 2022. 

Between 2002 and 2019, after adjusting for age, the rate of deaths where chronic conditions contributed decreased on average by 1.3% per year, from 605 per 100,0000 in 2002 to 477 per 100,000 in 2019. 

Between 2002 and 2019, the rate of deaths where chronic conditions contributed decreased from 605 to 477 deaths per 100,000 population, after adjusting for age. This represented a downtrend of 1.3% per year when an exponential model was fit to the time series.

The age-standardised rate of deaths where chronic conditions contributed decreased again in 2020 to 448 per 100,000 population before increasing slightly to 459 per 100,000 population in 2021 and again to 490 per 100,000 population in 2022. This was consistent with the pattern for all-cause mortality over the same period (Figure 3). For more information see Life expectancy and causes of death.

Figure 3: Age-standardised rates of death due to all-causes and where chronic conditions contributed, 2002 to 2022

This chart shows that the age-standardised death rate due to all-causes was 675 per 100,000 population in 2002 and 548 per 100,000 population in 2022.

Expenditure

Chronic conditions are associated with substantial health system spending. In 2020–21, the top 3 condition groups associated with the highest spending were all chronic. Based on disease-specific allocated health care expenditure, in 2020–21:

  • $14.8 billion was spent on musculoskeletal conditions
  • $14.6 billion was spent on cancer and other neoplasms
  • $14.3 billion was spent on cardiovascular diseases (AIHW 2023b). 

Combined, the direct health care costs of these 3 conditions was 29% of total allocated health expenditure in
2020–21.

Treatment and management

Primary care

Most care for chronic conditions is provided in the primary health care setting by general practitioners (GPs) and allied health professionals, with the number of GP visits increasing with the number of chronic conditions a person has (Dobson et al. 2020).

The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) Health of the Nation Survey collected information on the 3 most common reasons for patient presentation to primary care, as reported by GPs (RACGP 2023). In 2023 these were:

  • psychological factors, including depression and anxiety
  • musculoskeletal conditions, including arthritis
  • endocrine and metabolic conditions, including diabetes.

Psychological factors have been the most common health concerns managed by general practitioners since 2017, with the proportion of GPs reporting psychological factors in their top 3 reasons for patient presentations increasing from 61% in 2017 to 72% in 2023 (RACGP 2023).

Hospitalisations

In 2021–22, there were 6.4 million hospitalisations were associated with chronic conditions. This represented 55% of all hospitalisations in Australia.

Based on analysis of principal and additional diagnoses recorded in the National Hospital Morbidity Database (NHMD), in 2021–22 chronic conditions were associated with 23.4 million patient days (74% of all patient days).

The average length of stay for hospitalisations associated with chronic conditions (3.7 days) was 2.3 times longer than for other hospitalisations (1.6 days).

Between 2012–13 and 2018–19, the age-standardised rate of chronic condition hospitalisations increased from 20,100 per 100,000 population in 2012–13 to 22,700 per 100,000 population in 2018–19. The rate of chronic condition hospitalisations has fluctuated since. Per 100,000 population, there were 21,300 chronic condition hospitalisations in 2019–20; 22,500 in 2020–21 and 21,300 in 2021–22.

For more information on health service use for the selected chronic conditions, see: Cancer, Cancer screening, Chronic kidney disease, Chronic musculoskeletal conditions, Chronic respiratory conditions, Dementia, Diabetes, Heart, stroke and vascular disease, Hospitals, Mental health.

Where do I go for more information?

For further information on chronic conditions see: