National asthma indicators

Overview

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the airways. People with asthma experience episodes of wheezing, breathlessness and chest tightness due to widespread narrowing of the airways.

The 10 National asthma indicators were published in the National Asthma Strategy 2018 (Strategy) by the National Asthma Council (NACA 2018). The Strategy aims to reduce the health, social and economic impacts of asthma with a targeted and comprehensive approach to optimise asthma diagnosis and management. These indicators provide information for policymakers about the status of asthma in Australia.

The goal of the Strategy is to reduce the impact of asthma on Australia’s health, society and economy. To achieve this, the Strategy outlines 5 high-level objectives with potential areas for action:

• support effective self-management practices
• develop the health professional workforce
• enhance asthma care and management
• create supportive community environments
• promote research, evidence and data.

Progress in achieving the goal and objectives of the Strategy will be measured by the following outcome measures:

• decrease in suboptimal asthma control
• increase in asthma action plan uptake for both adults and children
• improved adherence with appropriate preventer medicines
• increase in annual General Practitioner (GP) reviews of people with asthma
• reduced avoidable asthma-related hospitalisations (First Nations people and non-Indigenous people)
• improved quality of life among people with asthma
• reduced costs of asthma to patients, the healthcare system and government, including indirect costs such as reduced productivity
• reduced prevalence of asthma (First Nations people and non-Indigenous people)
• reduced asthma-related deaths (First Nations people and non-Indigenous people).

Individual indicators are updated regularly. For the June 2024 release, indicators using mortality data and published data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 2022 National Health Survey have been updated.

It should be noted that indicators on quality of life and asthma action plans (which also use NHS data) have not been updated for this release. They are scheduled for update in an upcoming release.

For more information on each indicator, select the indicator links in the following Indicator summary table.

Table 1: National asthma indicators – tracking progress

Outcome measure	Indicator	Baseline value*	Latest value	Progress status	Last updated
Reduced prevalence of asthma	The proportion of people estimated to be living with current and long-term asthma	11% of people in Australia in 2017–18	11% of people in Australia in 2022	No change	17 June 2024 Data table
Reduced costs of asthma to patients, the healthcare system and government, including indirect costs such as reduced productivity	Annual health expenditure on asthma	$770.4 million in 2015–16	$851.7 million in 2020–21	Regress	14 December 2023 Data table
Reduced asthma-related deaths	Deaths due to asthma (all ages)	1.9 deaths per 100,000 population for all ages in 2017	1.8 deaths per 100,000 population for all ages in 2022	Progress	17 June 2024 Data table
Reduced asthma-related deaths	Deaths due to asthma (5–34 years)	0.3 deaths per 100,000 population for people aged 5–34 in 2017	0.3 deaths per 100,000 population for people aged 5–34 in 2022	No change	17 June 2024 Data table
Reduced asthma-related deaths	Deaths due to asthma (35–54 years)	1.0 deaths per 100,000 population for people aged 35–54 in 2017	0.8 deaths per 100,000 population people aged 35–54 in 2022	Progress	17 June 2024 Data table
Reduced asthma-related deaths	Deaths due to asthma (55 years and over)	5.5 per 100,000 population for people aged 55 and over, in 2017	5.1 per 100,000 population for people aged 55 and over, in 2022	Progress	17 June 2024 Data table
Increase in annual General Practitioner (GP) reviews of people with asthma	Asthma cycle of care claims	0.3% of people in Australia claimed in 2017–18	0.1% of people in Australia claimed in 2021–22	Regress	30 June 2023 Data table
Decrease in suboptimal asthma control	Asthma control medication use	17% of people dispensed at least 1 reliever, were dispensed 3 or more relievers in 2017–18	18% of people dispensed at least 1 reliever, were dispensed 3 or more relievers in 2021–22	No change	30 June 2023 Data table
Improved adherence with appropriate preventer medicines	Preventer medication use for asthma	34% dispensed at least 1 preventer, were dispensed 3 or more preventers in 2017–18	33% dispensed at least 1 preventer, were dispensed 3 or more preventers in 2021–22	No change	30 June 2023 Data table
Reduced asthma-related hospitalisations	Hospital admissions due to asthma	172 hospitalisations per 100,000 due to asthma in 2016–17	99 hospitalisations per 100,000 due to asthma in 2021–22	Progress	14 December 2023 Data table
Reduced asthma-related hospitalisations	Emergency department (ED) presentations	297 per 100,000 ED presentations in 2018–19 due to asthma	232 per 100,000 ED presentations in 2020–21 due to asthma	Progress	30 June 2023 Data table
Increase in asthma action plan uptake for both adults and children(a)	Asthma action plans	31% of people with asthma had a plan in 2017–18	34% of people with asthma had a plan in 2021–22	Data not comparable	30 June 2023 Data table
Improved quality of life among people with asthma(a)(b)	Impact of asthma on quality of life (interference in daily activities)	23% of people with asthma reported that asthma interfered with their daily activities 2 or more times in the past 4 weeks in 2017–18	21% of people with asthma reported that interfered with their daily activities 2 or more times in the past 4 weeks in 2020–21	Data not comparable	30 June 2023 Data table
Improved quality of life among people with asthma(a)(b)	Impact of asthma on quality of life (psychological distress)	11% of people with asthma reported experiencing very high levels of psychological distress in 2017–18	11% of people with asthma reported experiencing very high levels of psychological distress in 2020–21	Data not comparable	30 June 2023 Data table
Improved quality of life among people with asthma(a)(b)	Impact of asthma on quality of life (self-assessed health)	8% of people with asthma reported having poor self-assessed health in 2017–18	5% of people with asthma reported having poor self-assessed health in 2020–21	Data not comparable	30 June 2023 Data table

*Baseline data was included in the 2019 Indicator report. Full indicator text is included in the Asthma web pages at links provided in the table above.

Notes

1. It should be noted that indicators on quality of life and asthma action plans (which use NHS data) have not been updated with the 2022 NHS for this release. They are scheduled for update in a subsequent release.
2. Quality of life content has not been included in the Asthma web pages for the June 2024 release, but is scheduled for update in a future release.

**Status key

Progress	Regress	No change	Data not comparable
Used where there are 2 or more data points, and the measure is moving in the direction the Strategy wants to see.	Used where there are 2 or more data points, and the measure is not moving in the direction the Strategy wants to see.	Used where there are 2 or more data points, and the latest data are similar to the baseline.	Used where data is not comparable over time.

Tracking progress