Chronic disease and death
August 24, 2012
MORTALITY rates from multiple
chronic conditions in Australia are
underestimated according to the
Australian Institute of Health and
Welfare (AIHW).
The comments come in the wake
of a report by the AIHW, Multiple
causes of death: an analysis of all
natural and selected chronic disease
causes of death 1997-2007, which
for the first time used multiple
causes of death statistics (instead
of the traditional analysis method
which focused on one underlaying
cause of death) to describe
patterns of chronic disease
mortality in Australia.
“Some chronic diseases are more
likely to be reported as an
associated cause of death, rather
than the main cause of death,” said
AIHW spokesperson Ann Hunt.
“Traditional analysis ignores
associated causes of death, and so
underestimates the contribution of
diseases such as chronic kidney
failure, diabetes, asthma, dementia
and Alzheimer diseases and chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease to
deaths in Australia,” Hunt added.
According to the report, an
average of three diseases
contributed to each death due to
natural causes in Australia in 2007,
and only 20% of these deaths were
due to a single disease.
Interestingly the report also
showed a doubling in the number
of deaths where there were five or
more causes from 11% in 1997 to
21% in 2007.
Researchers also found that the
group with the highest average
number of contributing diseases
causing death were aged between
60 and 89, whilst for deaths
involving chronic diseases, coronary
heart disease, hypertensive
diseases and diabetes were leading
contributing causes.
“CHD contributed to nearly half of
deaths involving diabetes, and more
than one third involving chronic
and unspecified kidney failure,
chronic obstructive pulmonary
disease or asthma,” said Hunt.
“One quarter of deaths involving
dementia or Alzheimer disease also
involved influenza or pneumonia,”
she added.
MEANWHILE Hunt also said that
studying multiple cause data
enables researchers to garner a
more complete picture of all
diseases contributing to death.
This in turn can support targeted
prevention, treatment and service
planning, as well as to inform
surveillance, guide research
investments and enhance health
measures such as estimates of
burden of disease.
The above article was sent to subscribers in Pharmacy Daily's issue from 24 Aug 12To see the full newsletter, see the embedded issue below or CLICK HERE to download Pharmacy Daily from 24 Aug 12