Leading causes of death
After standardising for age, the all-cause mortality rate in the period 2007–2020 for humanitarian entrants was 310 deaths per 100,000 person years. This was higher than other permanent migrants (190 deaths per 100,000 person years) and lower than the rest of the Australian population (550 deaths per 100,000).
Due to differences in the age profile of the populations, the median age at death varied between groups. For more information about age profiles of the population groups, see Background - cohort demographics.
Among humanitarian entrants, the median age at death for males was 60 years and for females was 70.5 years. In comparison, for other permanent migrants, the median age at death was 64 years for males and 69 years for females, and for the rest of the Australian population it was 78 years for males and 84 years for females. Causes of death vary by age, with some causes more common in older age groups. Due to this, and the age differences between the cohorts, comparisons of leading causes of death were made within age categories.
Leading causes of death for humanitarian entrants
Figure 5.1 shows the number of male and female deaths contributing to the top 5 causes in 2007–2020. Coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease and lung cancer were among the top 5 causes for both males and females. Females accounted for more deaths due to cerebrovascular disease, whereas males accounted for more deaths due to coronary heart disease and lung cancer. Among males, suicide was the 3rd leading cause of death and land transport accidents was the 4th leading cause.
Figure 5.1: Leading causes of death for humanitarian entrants by sex, 2007–2020 (number of deaths)
Source: AIHW analysis of PLIDA, 2007–2020.
Leading causes of death by life stages
Only the top 3 ranked causes of death are presented in children aged 1–14 due to small numbers of deaths in humanitarian entrants in the less than 1 and 1–14 age groups. Babies born in Australia will be included in the rest of the Australian population and not in the comparison migrant groups. Therefore, the causes of death in the migrant groups will more likely reflect older children and not infants and should not be compared to the Australian population in this age group.
Accidental drowning is the leading cause of death in humanitarian entrant children (28% of deaths) (Figure 5.2).
Figure 5.2: Leading causes of death for children aged 1–14, 2007–2020 (proportion of total deaths)
Source: AIHW analysis of PLIDA, 2007–2020.
In young people aged 15–24, suicide was the leading cause of death, followed by land transport accidents for humanitarian entrants, other permanent migrants and the rest of the Australian population. Accidentally drowning ranked higher for humanitarian entrants (3rd) with 11% of deaths, compared with 3.1% in other permanent migrants (5th) (Figure 5.3) and 1.5% among the rest of the Australian population (10th).
Figure 5.3: Leading causes of death for young people aged 15–24, 2007–2020 (proportion of total deaths)
Source: AIHW analysis of PLIDA, 2007–2020.
Suicide was also the leading cause of death in adults aged 25–60 for all population groups. Among humanitarian entrants, land transport accidents were the 2nd leading cause of death with 7.2% of deaths, compared with 4.6% of deaths for other permanent migrants (6th) and 3.5% of deaths for the rest of the Australian population (8th). Coronary heart disease and lung cancer were among the top 5 causes for humanitarian entrants, other permanent migrants and the rest of the Australian population. Among humanitarian entrants, liver cancer was the 4th leading cause of death (5.7%) (Figure 5.4).
Figure 5.4: Leading causes of death for adults aged 25–60, 2007–2020 (proportion of total deaths)
Source: AIHW analysis of PLIDA, 2007–2020.
Leading causes of death in people aged over 60 were similar across population groups. Pancreatic cancer was the 5th leading cause of death (3.8% of deaths) in humanitarian entrants (Figure 5.5), it was also ranked 6th in other permanent migrants (3.3% of deaths) but only ranked 12th in the rest of the Australian population (1.8% of deaths).
People with long-term diabetes are more likely to develop pancreatic cancer (but pancreatic cancer can also cause diabetes) (George et al. 2022). There was a higher rate of diabetes observed in the humanitarian entrant and other permanent migrant populations (See Long-term health conditions – Diabetes).
Figure 5.5: Leading causes of death for older people aged over 60 (proportion of total deaths)
Source: AIHW analysis of PLIDA, 2007–2020.
More data on causes of death by sex in each population group, including cause-specific mortality rates, can be examined in the interactive data visualisation (Figure 5.7).
References
George S, Jean-Baptiste W, Yusuf AA, Inyang B, Koshy FS, George K, Poudel P, Chalasani R, Goonathilake MR, Waqar S and Mohammed L (2022) The Role of Type 2 Diabetes in Pancreatic Cancer, Cureus, 14(6):e26288, doi:10.7759/cureus.26288.
Person-Level Integrated Data Asset (PLIDA), 2007–2020, PLIDA Modular Product, ABS DataLab. Findings based on use of PLIDA data.