For the first time in almost two decades there has been an increase in ill health experienced by Australians, a national study has found.

December 13, 2022

Sickness and disease within the Australian population is on the rise for the first time in almost two decades, and COVID-19 is one of the leading causes.

Despite the increase, the nation remains healthier than it was when monitoring started in 2003, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare says.

“Australians lost an estimated 5.5 million years of healthy life in 2022,” spokesperson Richard Juckes said on Tuesday.

“Each new study since 2003 showed a decrease in the average amount of time spent in ill health by Australians, but in 2022 we saw this average increase by two per cent compared with the 2018 study.”

The Australian Burden of Disease Study 2022 measures the years of healthy life lost by Australians.

It converts the impact of diseases and injuries to disability-adjusted life years, which include both the impact of living with poor health (the non-fatal burden of disease) and dying prematurely (fatal burden).

Since 2003, there has been an 11 per cent decline in disability-adjusted life years, with the fatal burden falling by 23 per cent and the rates of non-fatal burden increasing only slightly.

“In other words, fewer Australians are dying prematurely than 19 years ago, but we are still living with similar amounts of ill health,’ Mr. Juckes said.

In the 2022 study, 48 per cent of the harm done by diseases and other causes of ill health (the total burden) came from dying prematurely and 52 per cent came from living in poor health.

COVID-19 also featured in the analysis for the first time and it was one of the leading causes of health burden.

Researchers estimate the health burden from COVID-19, including long COVID, accounted for 2.7 per cent of the total burden in Australia, mostly due to premature death among older people.

The top five specific diseases that caused health burden were coronary heart disease (5.5 per cent), dementia (4.4 per cent), back pain (4.2 per cent), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (3.7 per cent) and anxiety disorders (2.9 per cent).

COVID-19 ranked eighth among the specific diseases.

It also pushed the fatal burden from infectious diseases up by 143 per cent between 2018 and 2022.

It had previously fallen by 39 per cent between 2003 and 2018.

Among grouped diseases and conditions, cancers caused the most burden, accounting for 17 per cent of the total.

It was followed by musculoskeletal conditions (13 per cent), cardiovascular diseases (12 per cent), mental & substance use disorders (12 per cent) and neurological conditions (8 per cent).

Between 2003 and 2022, fatal burden rates fell by 50 per cent for cardiovascular diseases, while cancers declined by 26 per cent.

Infant and congenital conditions also fell, down 23 per cent.

‘Over the long term, we have seen a large decline in the burden from dying prematurely in many disease groups,” Mr. Juckes said.

“But since 2003, there has been an increase in the rate of fatal burden due to neurological conditions (42 per cent higher), especially dementia.”

It is now the second leading cause of total burden, moving up from the 12th spot in 2003.