Blog Update 26 February 2016 Leading causes of Australian deaths

Blog Update 26 February 2016 

 

The Following is from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. The full page and info is at the following link. It makes interesting reading. It also makes you think about the things that the general public think are our biggest killers are actually wrong and therefore don’t get an appropriate amount of awareness or funding. Bottom line people are dying of things they don’t necessarily need to die from.

 

For those of us with Terminal End Stage Cardiac and pulmonary disease this is frustrating beyond words.

http://www.aihw.gov.au/deaths/leading-causes-of-death/

Leading underlying causes of death by sex

Coronary heart disease is the leading underlying cause of death in Australia, followed by dementia and Alzheimer disease, and cerebrovascular diseases (which includes stroke). Lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) make up the top 5 leading underlying causes of death in Australia in 2013, for males and females of all ages combined.

Figure 1 below shows the number of male and female deaths contributing to the top 5 causes. Males account for more deaths due to coronary heart disease, lung cancer and COPD. Females account for the majority of deaths due to cerebrovascular disease and dementia and Alzheimer disease. For more leading causes of death by sex see Table S1.

Figure 1: Leading underlying causes of death by sex, 2013

Note: Leading causes of death are based on underlying causes of death and classified using an AIHW-modified version of Becker et al. 2006. International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th revision (ICD-10) codes are presented in parentheses.

Source: AIHW National Mortality Database (Table S1). 

Leading underlying causes of death by age

The leading underlying causes of death are different at different ages. In general, chronic disease causes of death feature more prominently among people aged 45 years and over while the leading causes of death among 1–44 year olds are external causes such as land transport accidents and suicides.

Coronary heart disease is the most common underlying cause of death in Australia for people over age 45, followed by cerebrovascular disease, cancers, dementia and Alzheimer disease and respiratory conditions.

Suicide was the leading underlying cause of death among persons aged 15–44, and land transport accidents were the leading cause among people aged 1–14.

Land transport accidents were responsible for 14% of deaths among persons aged 1–14, and 23% of deaths among persons aged 15–24, and suicide was the underlying cause of 18% of deaths among persons age 25–44 and 28% of deaths among those aged 15–24.

Among infants, certain conditions originating in the perinatal period and congenital conditions were responsible for most deaths (76%). This was followed by sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), accounting for 6% of infant deaths.

See more on Premature mortality in Australia. 

Figure 2: Leading underlying causes of death in Australia by age group, 2011–2013
	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th
Age < 1	Other Perinatal & congenital	Other SIDS	Other Ill–defined causes	External Accidental threats to breathing	Other Selected metabolic disorders
Age 1–14	External Land transport accidents	Other Perinatal & congenital	Cancer Brain cancer	External Accidental poisoning	Other Cerebral palsy & related
Age 15–24	External Suicide	External Land transport accidents	External Accidental poisoning	External Assault	External Event of undetermined intent
Age  25–44	External Suicide	External Accidental poisoning	External Land transport accidents	Circulatory Coronary heart disease	Cancer Breast cancer
Age  45–64	Circulatory Coronary heart disease	Cancer Lung cancer	Cancer Breast cancer	Cancer Colorectal cancer	External Suicide
Age  65–74	Circulatory Coronary heart disease	Cancer Lung cancer	Respiratory COPD	Circulatory Cerebrovascular disease	Cancer Colorectal cancer
Age  75–84	Circulatory Coronary heart disease	Circulatory Cerebrovascular disease	Other Dementia & Alzheimer disease	Cancer Lung cancer	Respiratory COPD
Age  85–94	Circulatory Coronary heart disease	Other Dementia & Alzheimer disease	Circulatory Cerebrovascular disease	Respiratory COPD	Circulatory Heart failure
Age 95+	Circulatory Coronary heart disease	Other Dementia & Alzheimer disease	Circulatory Cerebrovascular disease	Circulatory Heart failure	Respiratory Influenza & pneumonia

Note: Leading causes of death are based on underlying causes of death and classified using an AIHW-modified version of Becker et al. 2006. SIDS refers to sudden infant death syndrome. COPD refers to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.AIHW General Record of Incidence of Mortality (GRIM) books are available for selected leading causes of death.

Source: AIHW National Mortality Database (Table S2).

Classifying causes of death

Leading underlying causes of death are determined by grouping highly specific causes of death and counting the number of deaths assigned to each disease group. Over 14,000 specific causes of illness, injury and death are presented in theInternational Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th Revision (ICD-10). These specific causes are often grouped in a way that is meaningful for public health purposes.

A common grouping is by ICD chapters which are broad categories arranged according to the type of disease, the body system affected by the disease or the circumstances causing death. Each chapter is further divided into blocks of related diseases. Australian cause of death data by ICD-10 chapters and selected causes of death are published in the AIHWGeneral Record of Incidence of Mortality (GRIM) books.

For leading underlying cause of death analysis, however, information needs to be more specific than ICD chapters and blocks. There is no standard method for grouping causes, however, the AIHW follows the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) (Becker et al. 2006) with minor modifications to suit the Australian context. This grouping is a mix of ICD chapters, blocks and specific diseases to maximise information, separate out ill-defined causes and highlight health priority areas.

The leading underlying causes of death presented here are classified using the AIHW-modified version of Becker et al. 2006.