Heart, stroke and vascular disease—Australian facts

The National Health Survey (NHS) is conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics to obtain national information on the health status of Australians, their use of health services and facilities, and health-related aspects of their lifestyle. The most recent NHS was conducted in 2017–18.

The NHS collects self-reported data on whether a respondent had 1 or more long-term health conditions; that is, conditions that lasted, or were expected to last, 6 months or more.

The NHS refers to ‘heart, stroke and vascular disease’, which comprises people who reported having been told by a doctor or a nurse that they had any of a range of circulatory conditions comprising:

• ischaemic heart diseases (angina, heart attack and other ischaemic heart diseases)
• cerebrovascular diseases (stroke and other cerebrovascular diseases)
• oedema
• heart failure
• diseases of the arteries, arterioles and capillaries,

and that their condition was current and long-term; that is, their condition was current at the time of interview and had lasted, or was expected to last, 6 months or more.

Persons who reported having ischaemic heart diseases, cerebrovascular diseases and heart failure that were not current and long term at the time of interview are also included.

When interpreting data from the 2017–18 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 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander 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.

The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey (NATSIHS) is conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics to obtain national information on the health of Indigenous Australians, 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 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of all ages in non-remote and remote areas of Australia, including discrete Indigenous communities.

Further information can be found in ABS National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey, 2018–19.

The Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers (SDAC) is conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics to collect information about people of all ages with a disability, older people aged 65 and over, and carers of people with disability or a long-term health condition or older people. The surveys included people in both private and non-private dwellings (including people in establishments where care is provided) but excluded those in correctional institutions.

ABS SDAC 2018 has been used in this report to provide estimates on the prevalence of stroke. SDAC includes comprehensive questions on long-term conditions and associated activity limitations, and includes non-private dwellings, such as residential aged care facilities. This is particularly important when reporting on stroke because stroke is associated with increasing age, and many survivors of stroke require the special care that these facilities provide.

Further information can be found in ABS Disability, Ageing and Carers, Australia: Summary of Findings, 2018.

The AIHW 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 2019–20.

The AIHW National Mortality Database (NMD) 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.

In this report, deaths registered in 2015 and earlier are based on the final version of cause of death data; deaths registered in 2016 are based on the revised version; and deaths registered in 2017 and 2018 are based on the preliminary version.

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 National Mortality Database can be found in the following Australian Bureau of Statistics (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).

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 Australian Burden of Disease Study condition, 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.

The Australian Burden of Disease Study undertaken by the AIHW provides information on the burden of disease for the Australian population. Burden of disease analysis measures the impact of fatal (or years of life lost, YLL) and non-fatal burden (years lived with disability, YLD), with the sum of non-fatal and fatal burden equating the total burden (disability-adjusted life year, DALY).

The 2015 study builds on the AIHW's previous burden of disease studies and disease monitoring work and provides Australian-specific estimates for 216 diseases and injuries, grouped into 17 disease groups, for 2003, 2011 and 2015. It also provides estimates of how much of the burden can be attributed to 38 different risk factor exposures.

AIHW is currently updating Australia’s burden of disease estimates for the 2018 reference year. Key findings were release in August 2021, with detailed findings to be released in November 2021.

For further information see Burden of disease