Our national health report card – it’s mixed
For the first time in two decades, we’re experiencing an increase in ill health. What’s gone wrong?
For the last twenty years Australia has experienced less and less ill health – we are spending less time sick.
But this past year, Australians lost an estimated 5.5 million years of healthy life – a 2 per cent increase compared to 2018.
Despite the recent increase, we are still healthier than when monitoring began. Fewer of us are dying prematurely than 19 years ago, but we are still living with similar amounts of ill health.
That’s a key finding of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s (AIHW) Australian Burden of Disease Study 2022.
In 2022 just under half of the harm done by diseases and other causes of ill health came from dying prematurely (48 per cent of total burden), and just over half (52 per cent) from the consequences of living in poor health.
For the first time in Australia, the impact of COVID-19 featured in the analysis and it was one of the leading causes of health burden.
The estimated burden from COVID-19, including long COVID, accounted for 2.7 per cent of the total burden in Australia. COVID-19 brought about dying prematurely. It was higher in males than females, and highest in older Australians aged 75–84 years.
The top 5 specific diseases were typical for the older age group:
- coronary heart disease
- dementia
- back pain
- chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
- anxiety disorders
COVID-19 ranked 8th among the specific diseases.
In 2022, all cancers as a group of diseases caused the most burden (17 per cent). This was followed by musculoskeletal conditions, cardiovascular diseases, mental & substance use disorders, and neurological conditions.
Some good news - the report found that over the long term we have seen a large decline in the burden from dying prematurely in many disease groups. Between 2003 and 2022, fatal burden rates fell by 50 per cent for cardiovascular diseases, cancers (26 per cent), infant & congenital conditions (23 per cent) and injuries (7 per cent).
But since 2003, there has been an increase in the rate of fatal burden due to neurological conditions (42 per cent higher), especially dementia.
In 2022, dementia became the 2nd leading cause of total burden, moving up from the 12th spot in 2003.
While infectious diseases fell by 39 per cent between 2003 and 2018, it was 143 per cent higher in 2022, reflecting the impact of COVID-19.
