Summary
This report is the first complete assessment of the health of Australians to be released in the new millennium.
The findings in this report identify the extent and distribution of health problems in Australia, and quantify the contribution of key health risk factors to these problems.
Levels of death and disability from a comprehensive set of diseases, injuries and risks to health are combined to measure the total health ‘burden’.
This report is the second of this type in Australia, the first having been released in 1999. It expands the scope of that previous report and also presents for the first time:
- the differentials of health burden across areas and population groups in Australia
- the joint contribution of key health risks—including combined lifestyle, physiological, social and environmental factors—on health
- an analysis of past trends of health burden and the likely health of Australians in 20 years from now should those trends continue.
The findings of this report describe the health loss due to disease and injury that is not ameliorated by current treatment, rehabilitative and preventive efforts of the health system and society generally. Thus they represent the ‘unmet’ challenges of the health system and are best interpreted as opportunities for health gain.
By providing a comprehensive database of all relevant epidemiological and burden parameters through time, the report will benefit health policy development and research in relation to preventive and curative health interventions, health care expenditure projections, and further assessments of health burden in the period before the next major update.
The study upon which the report is based was funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing. A report specifically examining the burden of disease and injury in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people will be published separately.
Executive summary
- Introduction
- Key findings
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Introduction
- Purpose
- Background
- Summary measures of population health
- Disability - Adjusted Life Years
- Burden of disease analysis in Australia
- Burden in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
- Structure of report
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Methodological developments
- Social value choices
- Causal attribution
- Comorbidity and health
- Risks to health
- Past, present and future burden
- Differentials in burden
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Burden of disease and injury in Australia
- Disability-adjusted life years
- Years of life lost
- Years lost due to disability
- Age and sex patterns
- Specific disease and injury categories
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Risks to health in Australia
- Overview
- Combined effect of 14 selected risks to health
- Individual contribution of 14 selected risks to health
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Differentials in burden of disease and injury across Australia
- Overview
- Health-adjusted life expectancy
- State and territory differentials
- Differentials by socioeconomic status
- Differentials by remoteness
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Past, present and future burden of disease and injury in Australia
- Overview
- Health-adjusted life expectancy
- Burden
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Discussion and conclusions
- Potential applications
- Policy implications
- Precision of estimates
- Access to data
- Future directions
Appendix 1: Methods for estimating disability burden
Appendix 2: Methods for attributing risk
Annex Tables
End matter: Acknowledgments; Abbreviations and symbols; References; List of tables; List of figures