Your health: A report on the health of Victorians, 2005

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Overview

This is the first publication of Your health: A report on the health of Victorians from the Victorian Health Information Surveillance System (VHISS). The report displays selected public health indicators, which are standardised to monitor trends over time. Several sources of data were used to develop these indicators.

Some indicators are based on pre-existing analyses of data from the Health Surveillance and Evaluation Section of the department such as the Victorian ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSC) study, the Victorian burden of disease study, and the Victorian population health survey (VPHS).

Some of the public health indicators, including indicators of mothers’ and children’s health, and communicable disease indicators based on notifiable infectious diseases data, have been developed using data from other program areas in the department. External sources of data (from the Victorian Cancer Registry and the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), for example) were used to develop additional indicators.

This report has five sections:

• Section 1: General health status
• Section 2: Health-related behaviours
• Section 3: Health priority areas
• Section 4: Environmental and social health
• Section 5: Health inequalities.

Section 1 includes health status and health outcomes indicators on burden of disease, life expectancy at birth, avoidable mortality, ambulatory care sensitive conditions, and self-reported health. Time series and cross-sectional data are provided at a state-wide and small-area level, to identify changes in health status and to present current health profiles.

Section 2 presents information on risk factors and health-related behaviours for the selected public health indicators of smoking, nutrition, alcohol and physical inactivity among adults. These indicators are based on the VPHS (2004).

Section 3 contains information on national health priority areas including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, asthma, injury and poisoning, mental health, and selected musculoskeletal conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis and osteoporosis. Mothers’ and children’s health and key communicable diseases indicators are also presented.

Section 4 provides indicators of air quality developed with the Environment Protection Authority, and Legionella indicators developed with the environmental health program area (Public Health) of the department. Social and community indicators such as volunteering and trust are based on the VPHS (2004), while indicators on weekly earnings, employment, crime rate, and housing are based on the ABS data.

Section 5 presents indicators on key health issues of aboriginal health using the ABS and hospital separations data in Victoria. Health-related behaviours and health outcomes (self-reported health, ACSCs, avoidable mortality, life expectancy, and selected national health priority areas) are stratified by quintiles of Index of Relative Socioeconomic Disadvantage obtained by the ABS to identify differentials in the health of Victorians by socio-economic factors in Victoria. Differentials in rural health are described using the Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia.

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Your health - Preliminaries (658kb, pdf)

• Foreword
• Preface
• Contributors
• Summary
• Introduction
• Victorian Department of Human Services regions

Section 1 - General health status (537kb, pdf)

• Burden of disease
• Life expectancy
• Avoidable mortality
• Ambulatory care sensitive conditions
• Self-rated health status

Section 2 - Health-related behaviours (137kb, pdf)

• Smoking
• Nutrition
• Alcohol consumption
• Physical activity/inactivity

Section 3 - Health priorities (1,368kb, pdf)

• Cardiovascular disease
• Diabetes mellitus
• Cancer
• Asthma
• Injury and poisoning
• Mental health
• Musculoskeletal conditions
• Mothers' and children's health
• Communicable diseases

Section 4 - Environmental and social health (328kb, pdf)

• Environmental health
• Social and community context

Section 5 - Health inequalities (1,063kb, pdf)

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
• Socio-economic determinants of health
• Rural health

Appendices (106kb pdf)

• Methods
• Table 1: National health priority area conditions and International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes used
• Table 2: Ambulatory care sensitive conditions and International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes used
• Table 3: Avoidable mortality conditions and International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes used

Your health: A report on the health of Victorians 2005 - Entire report (2,945kb, pdf)

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