Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
In 2018–19, there were around 3,000 hospitalisations where epilepsy was the principal and/or additional diagnosis among Indigenous Australians.
After adjusting for differences in the age structure of the populations, the hospitalisation rate among Indigenous Australians was:
- over three times the rate of non-Indigenous Australians (390 and 113 hospitalisations per 100,000 population, respectively)
- higher among males than females (490 and 297 hospitalisations per 100,000 population, respectively).
Emergency department presentations
In 2018–19 there were over 20,700 emergency department (ED) presentations with a principal diagnosis of epilepsy (Figure 5.3), with 54% of these ED presentations going on to be admitted to a hospital. The rates of ED presentations were:
- higher in males than females (92.4 and 72.4 presentations per 100,000 population respectively)
- higher in younger groups, with the highest being males aged 20–24 and females aged 15–19 (122 and 120 presentations per 100,000 population respectively).
The majority of ED presentations were triaged as urgent (seen within 30 minutes) across both the male and female populations. A small proportion of ED presentations required resuscitation (Figure 5.3).