This section presents data for the primary care indicators supplied by Australia to the OECD collection. It compares these data with the HCQO results for OECD countries and comments on the comparability of the data provided to the OECD specification (OECD 2021).
The OECD HCQOs for primary care include rates of avoidable hospital admissions for a range of conditions. Rates of avoidable hospital admissions serve as measures of the effectiveness of the primary health care system, as access to a high-performing primary care system can decrease acute deterioration and hospital admissions among people with the examined conditions (OECD 2021).
The OECD published all primary care indicators in OECD.Stat and a selection of primary care indicators in Health at a glance 2023. Australia calculated and submitted 6 of the 7 primary care indicators requested:
- Asthma hospital admission rates
- Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) hospital admission rates
- Congestive heart failure (CHF) hospital admission rates
- Hypertension hospital admission rates
- Diabetes hospital admission rates
- Diabetes lower extremity amputation rates.
See: Primary care indicator definitions.
Overall data comparability and methods
The most recent data supplied by Australia for the acute care indicators was for 2020.These data are recorded as 2020 data in the OECD.Stat database, and so are described in that way here. Data from other OECD countries published on OECD.Stat for 2020 are used for comparison and calculation of OECD averages in this section. These data were extracted from the OECD.Stat database in January 2024, and may not reflect subsequent updates made to the database.
The OECD requested primary care data for adults aged 15 and over only, disaggregated by age and sex. The OECD then calculated age-sex standardised rates (standardised to the equivalent 2015 OECD population) for these indicators based on the supplied data. The indicators are presented on the same basis here.
Health at a glance 2023 notes that disease prevalence and availability of hospital care, differences in coding practices, and differences in hospital data coverage may affect the comparability of the data (OECD 2023). To prevent double counting, countries were asked to exclude the transfer of patients between hospitals from the calculations for primary care indicators.
The counting unit in the NHMD is the hospital separation which indicates the end of an episode of admitted patient care. Hence, Australia’s separation data are used in the calculation of hospital admission rates. Diagnosis and procedure codes are assigned after separation, when all information regarding the episode of care is available. This enables for more accurate capture of information.
Asthma hospital admission rate
Asthma is a common chronic condition that affects the airways (the breathing passage that carries air into our lungs). People with asthma experience episodes of wheezing, shortness of breath, coughing, chest tightness and fatigue due to widespread narrowing of the airways (NACA 2022).
In Australia, the asthma hospital admission rate reported for people aged 15 and over was 42 asthma hospital admissions per 100,000 population in 2020, higher than the OECD average of 23 asthma hospital admissions per 100,000 population. Among the countries that submitted data for this indicator, Japan reported the lowest rate with 0.7 per 100,000 population.
In Australia, the asthma hospital admission rate reported for people aged 15 and over decreased from 71 per 100,000 population in 2011. The rate for females was higher than that for males (58 and 24 per 100,000 population, respectively).
Interactive AA1.1 below compares OECD countries that submitted data for 2020 for this indicator, while AA1.2 presents Australia’s 10-year trend for this indicator where data are available.
