Introduction
In this section
Introduction
Mortality
- Life expectancy at birth
- Life expectancy at birth by health area
- Life expectancy at 65 years by health area
- Deaths from all causes by AHS
- Deaths from all causes - trend
- Deaths from all causes by cluster
- Deaths by major categories of cause and sex
- Deaths by major categories of cause and sex , non- Aboriginal peoples
- Age specific death rates from all causes
- Infant mortality
- Premature deaths by sex, persons aged less than 75 years
- Potentially avoidable deaths, persons aged less than 75 years - trend
- Potentially avoidable deaths persons aged less than 75 years - Non-Aboriginal persons
- Potentially avoidable deaths by health area
- Causes of potentially avoidable deaths
- Potentially avoidable deaths from preventable causes by health area
- Potentially avoidable deaths from causes amenable to health care by health area
- Potentially avoidable deaths by Local Government Area
- Deaths potentially avoidable by primary prevention by Local Government Area
- Deaths potentially avoidable by health care interventions by Local Government Area
- Life expectancy
- Deaths from all causes Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander peoples - trend
- Deaths by major categories of cause and sex , Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander peoples
- Infant mortality - Aboriginal peoples (NSW)
- Potentially avoidable deaths persons aged less than 75 years - Aboriginal persons
Morbidity
- Hospital separations for all causes (HNE)
- Hospital separations for all causes - Non-Aboriginal persons (HNE)
- Hospital separations by category of cause (HNE)
- Hospital separations by category of cause - Non-Aboriginal persons (HNE)
- Hospitalisations for ambulatory care sensitive conditions (HNE)
- Hospitalisations for ambulatory care sensitive conditions by Health Area
- Types of ambulatory care sensitive conditions (HNE)
- Ambulatory care sensitive conditions by Local Government Area
Self rated health status
- Excellent, very good, or good self-rated health status by age, adults aged 16 years and over, HNE, 2009
- Excellent, very good, or good self-rated health status by year, adults aged 16 years and over, HNE, 1997-2009
- Some difficulty with daily activities by area health service, adults aged 16 years and over, NSW, 2008
- Moderate or severe bodily pain by area health service, adults aged 16 years and over, NSW, 2008
Introduction
Health status is complex and difficult to measure. The data used to measure health status come from a variety of sources including mortality, hospital morbidity and self-reports from surveys
Health is conceptually difficult to define. For the individual, it is often thought of in positive terms such as a feeling of well-being, an ability to cope with the demands of life, physical and mental fitness, and freedom from disease and disability.
These aspects of health are best captured by the World Health Organisation’s 1947 definition of health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or injury”.
However, although ideal health is often perceived in positive terms, measurement of these positive aspects has proven difficult. Well-being, health and fitness are all subjective concepts that can be interpreted in various ways by different people. Further, since sick people come in contact with health care services more often than do healthy people, health is often measured in an indirect manner. Much of this measurement has focused on illness, disease, disability and death.
Mortality data are routinely collected, readily available and are therefore the most often used instrument for monitoring health. Causes of death are also widely used for international comparisons of health and disease.
The prevalence of disease in the population is another indirect measure of health. However, compared with mortality data, the collection and availability of morbidity data are incomplete and pose significant measurement and interpretation problems. In addition to routinely collected data such as notifications of communicable diseases and hospital morbidity collections, information on morbidity is also available from specific surveys of the population run by organisations such as the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the National Heart Foundation, the NSW Cancer Council and other agencies.
An important benefit from these surveys is that they also allow for the measurement of positive health at the population level. Progress is being made in the development of multi-dimensional models of health which involve positive as well as negative health concepts, such as:
- mental health (psychological well-being/psychological distress)
- well-being (energy/fatigue)
- general perception of overall health (e.g. excellent/good/fair/poor)
Population surveys provide a direct source of this information, although social and cultural biases can influence interpretation of results from these surveys.
Given that health includes several quite different concepts and that most of these can only be assessed indirectly, the approach taken in this resource has been to construct a wide range of health indicators that relate to various dimensions of health.
As the data available are limited by the current measures of health status this chapter presents information that is available including; self rated health status, mortality, and hospitalisations.
- For more information:
- Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Australia's health 2008. Cat. no. AUS 99. Canberra: AIHW, 2008. Available at: www.aihw.gov.au/publications/index.cfm/title/10585 .
- Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Australian hospital statistics 2006-07. Health services series no. 31. Cat. No. HSE 55. Canberra: AIHW, 2008. Available at www.aihw.gov.au/publications/hse/ahs06-07/ahs06-07.pdf
- Australian Bureau of Statistics. Deaths, Australia 2006. Catalogue no. 3302.0. Canberra: ABS, 2008. Available at www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/3302.0.
- Begg S, Vos T, Barker B. et al. The burden of disease and injury in Australia, 2003. PHE 82. Canberra: AIHW, 2007. Available at www.aihw.gov.au/publications/index.cfm/title/10317
- Victorian Government Department of Human Services. The Victorian Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions Study, 2001-02. Melbourne: VGDHS, 2004. Available at www.dhs.vic.gov.au/health/healthstatus/acsc/finalreport.htm..
- Page A, Ambrose S, Glover J, Hetzel D. Atlas of avoidable hospitalisations in Australia: ambulatory care-sensitive condition. Adelaide: PHIDU, University of Adelaide and AIHW, 2007. Available at www.publichealth.gov.au/publications/atlas-of-avoidable-hospitalisations-in-australia%3a-ambulatory-care-sensitive-conditions.htm
- NSW Department of Health. Integrated Primary and Community Health Policy 2007-2012. Sydney: NSW Department of Health, 2006. Available at www.health.nsw.gov.au/policies/pd/2006/PD2006_106.html ,
- Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. OECD health data 2008. Paris: OECD, 2008.
- Print version:
- Although this page can be printed directly from your Web browser, a higher quality version of this entire page (graph, table and text) is available as an Acrobat PDF file which can be printed or viewed on screen using free software
- Rider:
- The information presented in this resource result from analyses of a variety of social and health focused data sets. These data sets originate from a variety of sources including Hunter New England Health, the NSW Department of Health, and the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The timing of the release of these data to third parties is controlled by the owner of these data. It is therefore possible for these organisations to publish data that they have not yet made available to Hunter New England Population Health for analysis and release. Users should therefore check the publications of these organisations as it is possible that they may have published even more up to date information on Hunter New England than those available in this resource. As this resource is an ongoing project, the indicators presented will be updated as soon as possible after the release of all data sets to Hunter New England Population Health.
- Copyright notice:
- This work is copyright © It
may be reproduced in whole or in part for study training purposes subject
to the inclusion of an acknowledgement of the source. It may not be reproduced
for commercial usage or sale. Reproduction for purposes other than those
indicated above requires written permission from Hunter New England Health.
© NSW Department of Health and Hunter New England Health 2010. - Suggested citation:
- Hunter New England Population Health, Health in Hunter New England HealtheResource, Hunter New England Area Health Service, 2010. Available at: http://www2.hnehealth.nsw.gov.au/HNEPH/HHNE/bod/bodIntro.htm - Accessed (insert date of access).
- Contributors:
- Assistance from NSW Department of Health: This resource is modified from work undertaken for the production of the electronic and hard copy versions of the report Health of the people of NSW Report of the Chief Health Officer, (http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/public-health/chorep/) by the Centre for Epidemiology and Research of the NSW Department of Health. This work includes research and definition of indicators, programming framework, statistical programs, text and programming infrastructure for web publishing. Hunter New England Population Health has produced a local version of the report reflecting local concerns, where appropriate, and ensuring that only minimal changes were made in other parts of the text and presentation in the interest of consistency at a state level.
- Produced by:
- Hunter New England Population Health, Hunter New England Health, with assistance from Centre for Epidemiology and Research, NSW Health and modified from the electronic report Health of the people of NSW Report of the Chief Health Officer, (http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/public-health/chorep/
- Last updated:
- 26 November 2009
- See NSW Data:
- To view state data, relating to this indicator go to the report Health of the people of NSW: Report of the Chief Health Officer. (http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/public-health/chorep/) or intranet version
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