High cholesterol

In 2018, 2.7% of the total disease burden in Australia was due to high cholesterol, contributing to coronary heart disease and stroke burden (see ABDS 2018 Risk factor estimates data table).

These estimates reflect the amount of burden that could have been avoided if all people in Australia did not have high cholesterol.

How much burden was attributable to high cholesterol?

In 2018, high cholesterol contributed 37% of coronary heart disease total burden and 16% stroke burden.

This interactive data visualisation shows the burden attributable to high cholesterol by linked disease. The main section shows a horizontal bar graph which can be customised to report data according to year, sex and measure of attributable burden. Each bar represents the attributable burden of the disease linked to high cholesterol.

How did burden attributable to high cholesterol vary by age and sex?

Burden due to high cholesterol was estimated in people aged 25 and over. Total burden due to high cholesterol increased with age, peaking at age 65–84 years. Between ages 25–64 years, males experienced almost 3 times as much disease burden due to high cholesterol compared with females.

In both males and females, the most burden due to high cholesterol was from coronary heart disease.

This interactive data visualisation shows the amount of burden attributable to high cholesterol by age group and linked disease. The main section shows a stacked bar graph which can be customised to report data according to year, sex and measure of attributable burden. Each bar represents the attributable burden within a particular age group. Each bar is also split into separate components with each colour representing a disease linked to high cholesterol.

Did attributable burden vary by socioeconomic group?

Total disease burden due to high cholesterol was 2.1 times greater in the lowest (most disadvantaged) socioeconomic group compared with the highest (least disadvantaged) group.

This interactive data visualisation shows the rate of burden attributable to high cholesterol by socioeconomic group. The main section shows a bar graph which can be customised to report data according to year, sex and measure of attributable burden. Each bar represents the attributable burden within a particular socioeconomic group due to high cholesterol.

How has disease burden due to high cholesterol changed over time?

The rate of total burden due to high cholesterol (from all linked diseases) between 2003 and 2018 decreased by 53% (from 10.0 DALY to 4.7 DALY per 1,000 population).

This interactive data visualisation shows the rate of burden attributable to high cholesterol by year. The main section shows a horizontal bar graph which can be customised to report data according to year, sex and measure of attributable burden. Each bar represents the attributable burden within a particular year due to high cholesterol.