Adults aged 65–74
Figure 1: Contribution of disease groups to total (DALY), non-fatal (YLD) and fatal (YLL) burden, First Nations adults aged 65–74, 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 musculoskeletal conditions.
Nearly two-thirds of the burden (65% or 23,944 YLL) among First Nations adults aged 65–74 was due to premature death (fatal burden) (figures 2 and 5). Cancer & other neoplasms contributed more than one-third of the fatal burden in this age group (35%), followed by cardiovascular diseases (21%) and respiratory diseases (12%) (Figure 1).
The remaining burden (35% or 12,892 YLD) was due to living with disease or injury (non-fatal burden) (figures 2 and 5), with musculoskeletal conditions (23%), respiratory diseases (15%) and neurological conditions (11%) the main contributors (Figure 1).
Among First Nations adults aged 65–74, 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, cardiovascular diseases and respiratory diseases was mostly fatal.
- The burden from musculoskeletal conditions and neurological conditions was mostly non-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 65–74, 2022
Source: AIHW First Nations Burden of Disease Database
How does burden differ by sex?
Overall, among First Nations adults aged 65–74, a similar proportion of burden was experienced by males (51%) and females (49%). Males experienced a higher proportion of the fatal burden than females (53% compared with 47%) and females experienced a higher proportion of the non-fatal burden than males (54% compared with 46%).
Cancer & other neoplasms was the leading disease group contributor to total burden and fatal burden for both First Nations males and females in this age group (Figure 3). Musculoskeletal conditions was the leading disease group contributor to non-fatal burden for both 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 65–74, 2022
Stacked bar chart showing proportional burden splits by sex. For both sexes, cancer was the leading contributor to DALY, followed by cardiovascular diseases and respiratory diseases.
Figure 4: Top 5 specific causes of total (DALY), non-fatal (YLD) and fatal (YLL) burden, by sex, First Nations adults aged 65–74, 2022
Tile map showing the top specific causes by sex and burden type. For males, coronary heart disease was the largest contributing individual cause of total burden, while for females, it was COPD.
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 65–74 improved over the period 2011 to 2022 (Figure 5).
There was an 11% decline in the age-specific rate of total burden between 2011 and 2022 (from 1,016 to 902 DALY per 1,000 people). Most of this decline was observed between 2011 and 2018, while the DALY rate remained relatively stable between 2018 and 2022.
The decrease in total burden was driven by a reduction (of 14%) in the rate of fatal burden between 2011 and 2022, with much of this decrease observed between 2011 and 2018. There was also a decrease (of 6.3%) in non-fatal burden between 2011 and 2022.
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 65–74
Source: AIHW First Nations Burden of Disease Database
Changes by disease group
Over the period 2011 to 2022, among First Nations adults aged 65–74, there were decreases in the age-specific total burden rate from:
- cardiovascular diseases – a decrease of 70 DALY per 1,000 people, or 32%
- cancer & other neoplasms – a decrease of 27 DALY per 1,000, or 11%
- musculoskeletal conditions – a decrease of 27 DALY per 1,000, or 26%
- endocrine disorders – a decrease of 27 DALY per 1,000, or 33%.
The largest increase in burden was for infectious diseases, where the rate tripled between 2011 and 2022 (an increase of 28 DALY per 1,000), with most of this increase due to the emergence of COVID-19.
Changes by specific causes
In both 2011 and 2022, the same 6 diseases were the leading causes of burden among First Nations adults aged 65–74, although there were changes in the rankings and age-specific burden rates for each cause (Figure 6).
There were decreases in the age-specific burden rate and ranking for:
- coronary heart disease (37% decrease)
- chronic kidney disease (8.3% decrease).
There were decreases in the age-specific burden rate, but the ranking stayed for the same for:
- lung cancer (9.7% decrease)
- type 2 diabetes (29% decrease).
There were increases in the burden rate and ranking for:
- COPD (23% increase)
- dementia (9.2% increase).
Figure 6: Changes in ranking and age-specific DALY rate (DALY per 1,000 people), leading specific causes of burden, First Nations adults aged 65–74, 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) or decrease (blue) in the age-specific rate over time.
- Cause rankings exclude ‘other‘ residual conditions from each disease group; for example, ‘other musculoskeletal conditions’.
- There were changes in practices of coding deaths due to dementia; therefore, caution is recommended when interpreting changes over time for dementia burden.
- 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 65–74 experienced disease burden at 2.1 times the rate for non-Indigenous adults of this age in 2022 (902 compared with 432 per 1,000 people).
For adults aged 65–74, cancer & other neoplasms, cardiovascular diseases and respiratory diseases were the main contributors to the gap (representing 21%, 19% and 17% of the gap among adults aged 65–74, respectively) (see Figure 5 in Gap in disease burden section).