Adults aged 45–64
Figure 1: Contribution of disease groups to total (DALY), non-fatal (YLD) and fatal (YLL) burden, First Nations adults aged 45–64, 2022
Stacked bar chart showing proportions of burden by disease group. For this age group, most YLL comes from cancer, while most YLD comes from mental health conditions and substance use disorders.
Most of the burden (59% or 58,166 YLL) among First Nations adults aged 45–64 was due to premature death (fatal burden) (figures 2 and 5). Cancer & other neoplasms and cardiovascular diseases together contributed over half of the fatal burden in this age group (29% and 24%, respectively) (Figure 1).
The remaining burden (41% or 40,315 YLD) was due to living with disease or injury (non-fatal burden) (figures 2 and 5). Mental health conditions & substance use disorders contributed almost a quarter of the non-fatal burden in this age group (23%), followed by musculoskeletal conditions (21%) and respiratory diseases (12%) (Figure 1).
Among First Nations adults aged 45–64, the contribution of fatal burden and non-fatal burden to total burden differed greatly for each disease group (Figure 2). Among the highest burden disease groups:
- The burden from cancer & other neoplasms and cardiovascular diseases was mostly fatal.
- The burden from mental health conditions & substance use disorders and musculoskeletal conditions was mostly non-fatal.
- The burden from respiratory diseases was slightly more non-fatal than fatal.
Figure 2: Fatal (YLL) and non-fatal (YLD) burden as a proportion (%) of total burden (DALY), leading 10 disease groups, First Nations adults aged 45–64, 2022
Source: AIHW First Nations Burden of Disease Database
How does burden differ by sex?
Among First Nations adults aged 45–64, males experienced a higher proportion of the total burden (53% compared with 47%) and fatal burden (57% compared with 43%) than females. First Nations females in this age group experienced a higher proportion of the non-fatal burden than males (53% compared with 47%).
Cardiovascular diseases and cancer & other neoplasms were the 2 leading contributors to total burden and fatal burden for First Nations males and females in this age group, although their rankings and the amount they contributed varied by sex (Figure 3).
Mental health conditions & substance use disorders and musculoskeletal conditions together accounted for 44% of the non-fatal burden for both First Nations males and females (Figure 3).
Figure 3: Contribution of disease groups to total (DALY), non-fatal (YLD) and fatal (YLL) burden, by sex, First Nations adults aged 45–64, 2022
Stacked bar chart showing proportional burden splits by sex. For males, cardiovascular diseases was the leading contributor to DALY, while for females it was cancer.
Figure 4: Top 5 specific causes of total (DALY), non-fatal (YLD) and fatal (YLL) burden, by sex, First Nations adults aged 45–64, 2022
Tile map showing the top specific causes by sex and burden type. For males and females, coronary health disease was the largest contributing individual cause of total burden.
To further explore the top specific causes across all stages of life, see the following interactive data visualisation:
- Dashboard 8: Top specific causes across the stages of life: This visualisation provides the top 5 causes contributing to burden for each age group, by sex.
Changes over time
Overall, the health of First Nations adults aged 45–64 improved over the period 2011 to 2022 (Figure 5).
There was a 7.7% decline in the age-specific rate of total burden between 2011 and 2022 (from 600 to 554 DALY per 1,000 people). Most of this decline was observed between 2018 and 2022, while the DALY rate only slightly decreased between 2011 and 2018.
The decrease in total burden was driven by reductions in the rate of both fatal burden (9.4%) and non-fatal burden (5.1%) (Figure 5).
Figure 5: Change between 2011 and 2022 in the age-specific total (DALY), non-fatal (YLD) and fatal (YLL) burden rates (per 1,000 people), First Nations adults aged 45–64
Source: AIHW First Nations Burden of Disease Database
Changes by disease group
Over the period 2011 to 2022, among First Nations adults aged 45–64, there were decreases in the age-specific total burden rate from:
- cardiovascular diseases – a decrease of 24 DALY per 1,000 people, or 21%
- endocrine disorders – a decrease of 11 DALY per 1,000, or 25%
- musculoskeletal conditions – a decrease of 8.4 DALY per 1,000, or 14%.
Increases in burden were observed for infectious diseases (increase of 8.5 DALY per 1,000, 58%) and injuries (5.6 DALY per 1,000, or 15%). Most of the increase in burden due to infectious diseases was due to the emergence of COVID-19.
Changes by specific causes
In both 2011 and 2022, the same 5 diseases were the leading causes of burden among First Nations adults aged 45–64, although there were changes in the age-specific burden rates and rankings for some causes (Figure 6).
Although coronary heart disease was the leading cause of burden among First Nations people aged 45–64 in 2011 and 2022, the age-specific burden rate fell by 27% over this period (from 74 to 54 DALY per 1,000 people).
There were also decreases in the age-specific burden rate for:
- type 2 diabetes (25% decrease)
- chronic liver disease (14% decrease)
- COPD (4.0% decrease).
Figure 6: Changes in ranking and age-specific DALY rate (DALY per 1,000 people), leading specific causes of burden, First Nations adults aged 45–64, 2011 and 2022
COPD chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Notes
- An increase in rank over time does not always mean the disease or injury has increased in the population, and vice versa. Therefore, changes in ranking of causes of deaths and disease burden over time should be interpreted with caution.
- Causes are presented in descending order, from highest age-specific rate to lowest age-specific rate, with arrows indicating either an increase (orange), decrease (blue) or no change (black) in the age-specific rate over time.
- Cause rankings exclude ‘other‘ residual conditions from each disease group; for example, ‘other musculoskeletal conditions’.
- For information on colours used for each specific cause, see disease group colours for FNBDS 2022 colour legend.
Source: AIHW First Nations Burden of Disease Database
How big is the gap, and what causes it?
First Nations adults aged 45–64 experienced disease burden at 2.4 times the rate for non-Indigenous adults of this age in 2022 (554 compared with 235 per 1,000 people).
For adults aged 45–64, cardiovascular diseases was the greatest disease group contributor to the gap (representing 20% of the gap among adults aged 45–64). Cancer & other neoplasms and respiratory diseases were also important contributors to the gap in this age group (representing 15% and 12% of the gap, respectively) (see Figure 5 in Gap in disease burden section).