Technical notes
Data sources
Australian Burden of Disease Database
The Australian Burden of Disease Database contains aggregate burden of disease metrics from the Australian Burden of Disease Study (ABDS) undertaken by the AIHW. This includes measures of fatal burden (years of life lost, YLL), non-fatal burden (years lived with disability, YLD) and total burden (disability-adjusted life years, DALY)
The 2023 study builds on the AIHW's previous burden of disease studies and disease monitoring work and provides Australian-specific estimates for over 200 diseases and injuries in 2023, including comparisons with previous studies.
The 2018 (ABDS) also provides estimates of how much of the burden can be attributed to 40 different risk factors. Results were published in November 2021.
For further information see Burden of disease.
Disease Expenditure Database
The AIHW Disease Expenditure Database provides a broad picture of the use of health system resources classified by disease groups and conditions.
It contains estimates of expenditure by the Australian Burden of Disease Study diseases and injuries, age group, and sex for admitted patient, emergency department and outpatient hospital services, out-of-hospital medical services, and prescription pharmaceuticals.
It does not allocate all expenditure on health goods and services by disease – for example, neither administration expenditure nor capital expenditure can be meaningfully attributed to any particular condition due to their nature.
For more information see Disease expenditure in Australia.
National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey
The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey (NATSIHS) is conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) to obtain national information on the health of First Nations people, their use of health services and health-related aspects of their lifestyle. The most recent NATSIHS was conducted in 2018–19.
The NATSIHS collects information from First Nations people of all ages in non-remote and remote areas of Australia, including discrete First Nations communities.
Further information can be found in ABS National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey, 2018–19.
National Health Survey
The National Health Survey (NHS) is conducted by the ABS to obtain national information on the health status of Australians, their use of health services and facilities, prevalence of long-term health conditions and health risk factors. The most recent NHS was conducted in 2020–21. It is important to note that the 2020–21 NHS data should be considered a break in time series from previous NHS collections and used for point-in-time national analysis only. The survey was collected during the COVID-19 pandemic, via an online, self-complete form, which significantly changed the data collection and survey estimates.
The NHS collects self-reported data on whether a respondent had one or more long-term health conditions; that is, conditions that lasted, or were expected to last, 6 months or more.
When interpreting data from the NHS, some limitations need to be considered:
- Data that are self-reported rely on respondents knowing and providing accurate information.
- The survey does not include information from people living in nursing homes or otherwise institutionalised.
- Residents of Very remote areas and discrete First Nations communities were excluded from the survey. This is unlikely to affect national estimates, but will impact prevalence estimates by remoteness.
Further information can be found in National Health Survey: First results, 2017–18.
National Hospital Morbidity Database
The National Hospital Morbidity Database (NHMD) is a compilation of episode-level records from admitted patient morbidity data collection systems in Australian hospitals.
Reporting to the NHMD occurs at the end of a person’s admitted episode of care (separation or hospitalisation) and is based on the clinical documentation for that hospitalisation.
The NHMD is based on the Admitted Patient Care National Minimum Data Set (APC NMDS). It records information on admitted patient care (hospitalisations) in essentially all hospitals in Australia, and includes demographic, administrative and length-of-stay data, as well as data on the diagnoses of the patients, the procedures they underwent in hospital and external causes of injury and poisoning.
The hospital separations data do not include episodes of non-admitted patient care given in outpatient clinics or emergency departments. Patients in these settings may be admitted subsequently, with the care provided to them as admitted patients being included in the NHMD.
The following care types were excluded when undertaking the analysis: 7.3 (newborn – unqualified days only), 9 (organ procurement – posthumous) and 10 (hospital boarder).
Further information about the NHMD can be found in Admitted patient care NMDS 2020–21 and Admitted patient care NMDS 2021–22.
National Mortality Database
The National Mortality Database (NMD) holds records for deaths in Australia from 1964. It comprises information about causes of death and other characteristics of the person, such as sex, age at death, area of usual residence and Indigenous status. The cause of death data are provided to the AIHW by the Registries of Births, Deaths and Marriages and the National Coronial Information System (managed by the Victorian Department of Justice) and include cause of death coded by the ABS. The data are maintained by the AIHW in the NMD.
Revised and preliminary versions are subject to further revision by the ABS. For data by Indigenous status, the level of identification of Indigenous status is considered sufficient to enable analysis in 5 jurisdictions – New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
The data quality statements underpinning the AIHW NMD can be found in the following ABS publications:
- ABS quality declaration summary for Deaths, Australia.
- ABS quality declaration summary for Causes of death, Australia.
For more information see National Mortality Database (NMD).
Classifications
Australia uses the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD) to code causes of death (WHO 2019). In this report, deaths were coded using the 10th Revision (ICD-10) (Table 1).
MSK Condition | ICD-10 edition codes |
---|---|
Rheumatoid arthritis | M05-M06 |
Osteoarthritis | M15-M19 |
Back problems | M40, M41, M45-M54, M99 |
Gout | M10 |
Osteoporosis | M80-M82 |
All musculoskeletal conditions | M00-M99 |
Soruce: WHO 2019.
For hospital diagnoses and procedures, a classification modified for Australia is used. Data were coded using the ICD-10-AM classification (International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Conditions, 7th to 11th Revision, Australian Modification) (ACCD 2019a), incorporating the Australian Classification of Health Interventions (ACHI) (ACCD 2019b) (Tables 2 to 4).
Chronic musculoskeletal condition | ICD-10-AM 7th to 11th edition codes | Definition/description |
---|---|---|
Arthritis | M05–M06 | Rheumatoid arthritis |
| M15–M19 | Osteoarthritis |
Back Problems | M40-43 | Deforming Dorsopathies |
| M45-51 | Spondylopathies/other dorsopathies |
| M53-54 | Other dorsopathies |
| M99 | Biomechanical lesions, not elsewhere classified |
Gout | M10 | Gout |
Osteoarthritis | M15 | Polyarthrosis |
| M16 | Coxarthrosis [arthrosis of hip] |
| M17 | Gonarthrosis [arthrosis of knee] |
| M18 | Arthrosis of first carpometacarpal joint |
| M19 | Other arthrosis |
Osteoporosis | M80 | Osteoporosis with pathological fracture |
| M81 | Osteoporosis without pathological fracture |
| M82 | Osteoporosis in diseases classified elsewhere |
MSK condition | ICD-10-AM 7th to 11th edition codes | Definition/description |
---|---|---|
Minimal trauma fractures | ||
Hip fracture | S72.0 | Fracture of neck of femur |
| S72.1 | Pertrochanteric fracture |
| S72.2 | Subtrochanteric fracture |
Shoulder and upper arm fracture | S42 | Fracture of shoulder and upper arm |
Lower leg including ankle fracture | S82 | Fracture of lower leg, including ankle |
Lumbar spine and pelvis fracture | S32 | Fracture of lumbar spine and pelvis |
Forearm fracture | S52 | Fracture of forearm |
Fractures (all) | S02 | Fracture of skull and facial bones |
| S12 | Fracture of neck |
| S22 | Fracture of rib(s), sternum and thoracic spine |
| S32 | Fracture of lumbar spine and pelvis |
| S42 | Fracture of shoulder and upper arm |
| S52 | Fracture of forearm |
| S62 | Fracture at wrist and hand level |
| S72 | Fracture of femur |
| S82 | Fracture of lower leg, including ankle |
| S92 | Fracture of foot, except ankle |
| T02 | Fractures involving multiple body regions |
| T08 | Fracture of spine, level unspecified |
| T10 | Fracture of upper limb, level unspecified |
| T12 | Fracture of lower limb, level unspecified |
With a first external cause of: | ||
Minimal trauma falls | W00 | Fall on same level involving ice and snow |
| W01 | Fall on same level from slipping, tripping and stumbling |
| W03 | Other fall on same level due to collision with, or pushing by, another person |
| W04 | Fall while being carried or supported by other persons |
| W05–W08 | Fall involving wheelchair; bed; chair; other furniture |
| W18 | Other fall on same level |
| W19 | Unspecified fall |
Other minimal trauma events | W22 | Striking against or struck by other objects |
| W50 | Hit, struck, kicked, twisted, bitten or scratched by another person |
| W51 | Striking against or bumped into by another person |
| W54.8 | Other contact with dog |
MSK surgery | ACHI 10th edition codes |
---|---|
Total knee replacement | 4951700, 4951800, 4951900, 4953401, |
Total hip replacement | 4931800 and 4931900 |
Australian Modification (ICD-10-AM) –11th edition, tabular list of diseases and alphabetic index of diseases, Adelaide: Independent Hospital Pricing Authority.
ACCD (2019b) Australian Classification of Health Interventions (ACHI) – 11th edition, tabular list of interventions, and alphabetic index of interventions, Adelaide: Independent Hospital Pricing Authority.
ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) (2019) National Health Survey: Users’ Guide, 2017–18, ABS website, accessed 27 September 2023.
ABS (2022) National Health Survey: First results methodology, ABS website, accessed 27 September 2023.
WHO (World Health Organization) (2019) International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th Revision (ICD-10), Geneva: WHO.