Chronic conditions among ex-serving ADF members

AIHW analysis of health service use by ex-serving members showed that 102,000 ex-serving members were living with at least one selected chronic condition in 2019–20. Of these 86,000 were males and 16,000 were females. This represented a crude rate of 44.7% of ex-serving members.

However, to make comparisons over time, within subgroups of the ex-serving population, with the adult Australian population or with estimates from other data sources, age-standardised prevalence is used throughout the rest of this report. The age-standardised prevalence of ex-serving members with at least one selected chronic condition in 2019–20 was 39.4% which was higher than the prevalence of 37.2% in 2013–14. However, it should be noted that changes over time may reflect changes in diagnosis or access to treatment.

In comparison in 2019–20, there were around 7.6 million Australians living with a selected chronic condition. Australians had a similar age-standardised prevalence of 39.5% in 2019–20, but in comparison to ex-serving, the prevalence was slightly higher in 2013–14 (38.9%). 

Around 38.7% of male ex-serving members were living with a chronic condition while 41.2% of female ex-serving members had any chronic condition in 2019–20. The prevalence for ex-serving males and females with a chronic condition has increased by 2.1 percentage points from 36.6% and 2.6 percentage points from 38.6% respectively in 2013–14.

Australian males and females had a similar prevalence of chronic conditions in 2019–20 (38.2% and 40.9% respectively). However, the prevalence had only slightly increased by less than a percentage point from 2013–14 for both (37.5% and 40.3% respectively). 

Table 1 shows the prevalence of chronic conditions in ex-serving members and in all Australians for the first, mid and final point during the analysed period. The trends were similar over the period.

Source: Veteran Health Dataset, National Health Data Hub 2019–20.

Note: includes people aged 17 years and over. Figures are all age-standardised.

Chronic conditions become more common with age

This report examines age-specific prevalence of people living with at least one  chronic condition. The highest proportion of ex-serving members living with at least one chronic condition was 77.9% for people aged 65 years and over in 2019–20. The prevalence for this age group has increased by 1.4 percentage points from 76.5% in 2013–14. 

By sex, the highest prevalence of living with at least one chronic condition was also those aged 65 years and over for both males (78.5%) and females (69.3%). The prevalence for male and female ex-serving members aged 65 and over have increased by 1.7 and 0.9 percentage points from 76.8% and 68.3% respectively in 2013–14.

In comparison, Australians aged 65 and over also had the highest prevalence of at least one chronic condition of 85.8%, but this has decreased slightly from 86.8% in 2013–14. A decrease was also observed for Australian males and females from 2013–14 to 2019–20 (85.6% and 85.9% respectively in 2019–20). The higher prevalence for all Australians is likely driven by the data limitation of the VHD which only includes those who have served since 1985, and therefore underestimates prevalence for older ex-serving members.

The lowest proportion of people living with at least one chronic condition was 15.2% for ex-serving members aged between 17–24 in 2019–20. While this group had the lowest prevalence, it had also experienced the greatest increase, up by 3.8 percentage points from 11.3% in 2013–14. By sex, the lowest prevalence was found in those age 17–24 years for both males and females ex-serving. The prevalence among male ex-serving members aged 17–24 increased from 10.1% in 2013–14 to 13.7% in 2019–20. The prevalence among female ex-serving members aged 17–24 increased from 16.7% in 2013–14 to 20.2% in 2019–20. 

For Australians, the lowest prevalence was also found in those aged 17–24 years. The prevalence for Australian males aged 17–24 had increased from 10.9% in 2013-14 to 12.7% in 2019–20. The prevalence for Australian females aged 17–24 also increased from 15.2% in 2013–14 to 18.7% in 2019–20.

For ex-serving and all Australians, females had higher prevalence of any selected chronic conditions than males at a younger age but this trend switched at older ages. Ex-serving males aged 55–64 and 65 years and over had higher prevalence of chronic conditions.

The only ex-serving age group that had a decline in prevalence of conditions between 2013–14 and 2019–20 was those aged 55 to 64 years. The prevalence decreased from 57.7% to 55.6% over the period. This was largely due to ex-serving males, with prevalence falling from 58.3% to 54.2% in 2019–20.

When comparing prevalence between ex-serving members and Australians, the greatest relative difference was for those aged 25–34: 22.9% and 18.4% respectively (see Figure 1).

People living with more than one chronic condition

In addition to looking at the proportion of ex-serving ADF members with any selected chronic condition, this report analyses proportions of people by the number of conditions that persons had. In 2019–20, one in six people (16.6%) were living with two or more chronic conditions, up from one in seven (15.3%) in 2013–14. A higher proportion of ex-serving males (16.6%) were living with multiple chronic conditions than females (15.6%) in 2019–20.

Out of all ex-serving members in 2019–20, 10.7% were living with two chronic conditions, and 5.9% were living with three or more chronic conditions. These proportions have increased from 9.9% and 5.4% respectively in 2013–14.

In 2019–20, similar findings were observed for Australians who were living with two or more chronic conditions (16.3%). However, unlike the ex-serving members, this proportion was consistent with the proportion in 2013–14 (16.1%). The proportion of Australians living with two chronic conditions in 2019–20 was 10.5% which was consistent with the proportion in 2013–14 (10.3%). The proportion with three or more chronic conditions was also consistent over time (5.7% in 2019–20).