Australian Centre for Monitoring Population Health

Australian females experience different health outcomes to males. They experience more of their total disease burden from living with disease rather than from dying prematurely. Leading causes of disease burden include anxiety disorders, back pain and problems, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and heart disease. Females are more likely to have multiple chronic conditions. They are also more likely to experience sexual violence and intimate partner violence.

To learn more about the health outcomes of males, see The health of Australia’s males.

Australian males experience different health outcomes to females. They experience more of their total disease burden from dying prematurely than from living with disease and injury. Leading causes of disease burden include heart disease, dementia and mental health and substance use disorders. Males are also more likely to engage in risky health behaviours such as tobacco, alcohol and substance abuse. They are also less likely to seek health care services.

To learn more about the health outcomes of females, see The health of Australia’s females.

Lymphoedema is a condition where the accumulation of excessive amounts of protein-rich fluid in the tissue results in swelling of one or more regions of the body. The purpose of this scoping study is to assess the utility of available data sources in determining an estimate of the number of Australian’s living with lymphoedema. This report provides the basis for future analytical reports describing the prevalence of lymphoedema.

This report presents statistics on the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program (NBCSP) using key performance indicators. Of those who were invited to participate in the NBCSP between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2021, 40.9% undertook screening. Among those who screened in 2021, 6% had a positive result warranting further assessment. Of the participants who underwent a follow-up diagnostic assessment, 1 in 27 was diagnosed with a confirmed or suspected cancer.

The National Cervical Screening Program aims to reduce incidence, morbidity and mortality from cervical cancer in Australia. The National Cervical Screening Program data dictionary is a key document that has been developed by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare with the assistance of state and territory cervical screening programs and other cervical screening experts to support monitoring and reporting by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare for the renewed National Cervical Screening Program.

Improving the Australian population’s exposure to lifestyle risk factors in physical inactivity and overweight (including obesity) reduces the risk of disease and the disease burden attributable to these risk factors. If exposure to overweight (including obesity) and physical inactivity is reduced, the loss of thousands of healthy years of life could be avoided in 2030.

This report presents results of various scenarios of reduced exposure to overweight (including obesity) and physical inactivity in terms of the disease burden avoided in 2030.

This report is the third national report to present key data specific to cancer in adolescents and young adults (aged 15–24 years) in Australia. While cancer in young Australians is rare, it has a substantial social and economic impact on individuals, families and communities. Surveillance of this population is also important as adolescent and young adult cancer survivors are at an increased risk of developing a second cancer. 

Mesothelioma in Australia 2021– infocus presents the latest available information on the incidence of mesothelioma in Australia, along with mortality, survival and asbestos exposure information, using data from the Australian Mesothelioma Registry, the National Mortality Database and the Australian Cancer Database. On average, 2 people are diagnosed with mesothelioma in Australia each day – with a median age at diagnosis of 77 years old.

This summary report presents a snapshot of key findings from the Dementia in Australia online report as at the end of 2022 and presents statistics on dementia prevalence, burden of disease, deaths, expenditure, carers of people with dementia and the use of health and aged care services among people with dementia. Refer to the Dementia in Australia online report for the most up-to-statistics on dementia in Australia.

In 2015, a number of supplementary codes for chronic conditions were implemented in admitted patient care data in Australia. This report evaluates the use of the supplementary codes for the purpose of population health monitoring in Australia and provides evidence for including these codes in future analysis and linked data assets.