| Condition |
State estimates |
LGA estimates |
Comment |
| Deaths (all conditions) |
excellent |
excellent |
Good vital registration data. Use of five years of death data improves accuracy of LGA estimates. |
| Infectious Disease |
|
|
|
| HIV/AIDS |
good |
good |
Differences in HIV/AIDS deaths a fair indication of spread in disability. |
| Lower respiratory infections |
good |
good |
Based on SEIFA and rurality difference in admissions. |
| Neonatal conditions |
|
|
|
| Low birth weight |
excellent |
excellent |
Good data on neonatal conditions as almost all babies born in hospital. |
| Cancers |
excellent |
excellent |
Good data from cancer registry, synthetic estimates very similar to observed numbers. |
| Diabetes |
fair |
fair |
Derived from self-reported prevalence of NIDDM adjusted upwards by 50% to take account of underreporting. IDDM prevalence extrapolated from Tasmanian register. LGA differentials based on SIFA and rurality in National Health Survey. |
| Mental disorders |
|
|
|
| Alcohol dependence, depression, anxiety + personality disorders |
good |
good |
Derived from good quality survey data for whole of Australia. LGA differentials based on SEIFA and rurality in same survey. Relative lack of information on the average duration and severity of mental disorders. |
| Heroin dependence |
poor |
no information |
Poor data sources due to difficulty in collecting information on a group of people often not included in 'normal' surveys. Estimates are no more than 'ball park' figures but undoubtedly large and growing number of young adults are affected. |
| Bipolar disorder |
fair |
no information |
Derived from international prevalence estimates. |
| Schizophrenia |
good |
no information |
Estimates of prevalence confirmed by "Low Prevalence Study", part of the mental health survey which specifically measured psychotic disorders. |
| Attention-deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) |
poor |
no information |
Victorian estimates based on overseas prevalence. No local source. |
| Neuro and Sense disorders |
|
|
|
| Dementia |
good |
fair |
Based on overseas data but prevalence by age stable across many countries. Mortality data for dementia prone to differences in coding practices and therefore not a very good proxy for LGA differences. |
| Epilepsy |
fair |
no information |
Based on overseas data, no local let alone LGA information. |
| Parkinson |
good |
no information |
Based on overseas data, no local let alone LGA information. |
| Other vision disorders |
good |
no information |
Based on local survey data of good quality, no LGA data. |
| Hearing loss |
good |
no information |
Based on good SA survey, probably applies to Victoria; no LGA data. |
| Cardiovascular disease |
|
|
|
| Ischaemic heart disease |
good |
good |
Based on hospital data for infarction and survey data for angina. |
| Stroke |
good |
good |
Good data from hospitals with some adjustments based on epidemiological studies for non-hospitalised cases, number of first-ever stroke cases and level of severity. |
| Other CVD |
fair |
fair |
Extrapolated from hospitalised cases. |
| Chronic respiratory disease |
|
|
|
| COPD |
fair |
reasonable |
Based on community study from WA. Reasonable assumption of LGA variation according to mortality differences. |
| Asthma |
fair |
fair |
Based on Australian studies which used results based on hyperresponsiveness test rather than the larger self-reported figures. LGA differences implied from self-reported asthma in national health survey. |
| Digestive disorders |
|
|
|
| Liver Cirrhosis |
fair |
reasonable |
Based on admission data but community prevalence hard to estimate. Reasonable to use mortality as proxy for LGA differences. |
| Genito-urinary diseases |
|
|
|
| Nephritis/nephrosis |
good |
good |
From disease register of renal failure. |
| Benign prostatic hypertrophy |
reasonable |
good |
Data on incidence consistent with other data sources. Lack of knowledge of natural history of disease and rate of complications post-surgery (filled in with "expert opinion"). LGA differentials based on admission data for surgery. |
| Infertility |
fair |
no information |
Prevalence from one epidemiological study. Unknown LGA differentials. |
| Musculoskeletal disorders |
|
|
|
| Rheumatoid arthritis |
fair |
no information |
Based on overseas data. |
| Osteoarthritis |
fair |
poor |
Based on overseas data. LGA differentials from self-reported arthritis in national health survey which we discarded as a credible source of prevalence. |
| Oral health |
|
|
|
| Dental caries |
fair |
no information |
Reasonable data on prevalence but weak estimates of average duration and severity of symptoms. Unknown LGA differentials. |
| Injuries |
excellent |
excellent |
Based on area-specific data of injuries that presented at accident and emergency departments or were admitted. |
