Dashboards

Select the relevant category to explore the data:

For data tables, see Data.

About the dashboards

These dashboards display data relating to respiratory, cardiovascular and mental health conditions as well as other health conditions that are, or that could potentially be, associated with the impacts of bushfire or bushfire smoke, including:

  • hospitalisations (2002–03 to 2021–22)
    • respiratory conditions
      • acute respiratory infection
      • chronic lower respiratory conditions
        • chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) with acute exacerbation
        • asthma
    • heart, stroke, and vascular conditions
      • selected heart conditions (hypertensive disease, coronary heart disease, pulmonary heart disease, and other forms of heart disease)
      • coronary heart disease
        • heart attack (acute myocardial infarction)
      • heart failure and cardiomyopathy
      • atrial fibrillation and heart flutter
      • stroke
    • mental and behavioural disorders
      • mental and behavioural disorders due to psychoactive substance use
      • mood (affective) disorders
      • neurotic, stress-related and somatoform disorders
    • diabetes mellitus
    • chronic kidney disease
    • dehydration
    • burns
    • fractures
    • eye conditions
    • cellulitis
  • hospital emergency department presentations (2014–15 to 2021–22) (as above)
  • Medicare Benefits Schedule service claims (2002–03 to 2021–22)
    • respiratory test items
    • Asthma cycle of care items
    • cardiovascular diagnostic procedures and investigations
    • cardiovascular diagnostic imaging services
    • mental health service items – as listed at Medicare-subsidised mental health-specific services (up to 20 January 2023).
  • Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) and Repatriation Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (RPBS) prescriptions dispensed (2002–03 to 2021–22)
    • respiratory prescriptions
      • relievers
      • preventers
      • other (including COPD-specific treatments, other asthma)
    • oral corticosteroids
    • mental health prescriptions
      • anxiolytics
      • antidepressants
      • other mental health
    • cardiovascular prescriptions
      • anti-thrombotic agents
      • blood pressure lowering medicines
      • lipid-modifying agents
      • other cardiovascular medicines.

Data are presented on a weekly basis and displayed geographically by Statistical Area Level 4 (SA4) areas based on the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) 2016 structure.

The dashboard can be used to examine the data and identify particular points where there may have been large changes as a result of administrative factors. However, users are encouraged to consult the Technical notes section of this report as well as undertaking their own detailed examination of the data, prior to analysis, to identify other potential data quality issues.

When using the data in this release for analysis, users should consider a range of factors, including:

  • Each data item shows significant variation in service use levels and rates over time and geography. This variation reflects various fundamental characteristics (for example, seasonal variation, the population sex and age structure, trends in service use or disease prevalence over time), as well as methodological factors or administrative effects (for example, variation between states and territories in diagnosis coding practices), and natural variation and volatility (as described in more detail in Technical notes). This should be taken into consideration when interpreting shifts in service use in association with environmental events.
  • To gain some insight into changes in service use associated with environmental events, shifts in service use for a particular place and time associated with a particular environmental event could be compared with coincident changes in service use in unaffected areas. However, it should be noted that other factors may also influence volatility – for example, random chance and public holidays.
  • The geolocation of the data reflects the residential location of the patient, which may differ from the location of the patient at the time of condition onset, or exposure to an environmental influence. Care should be taken in the interpretation of results.

For further discussion on these points and related issues, see General guidance for using this data set.

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