BreastScreen Australia data dictionary: version 1.1

This dictionary is intended to be the authoritative source of data definitions used by BreastScreen Australia to meet the need for national consistency in data collected for program monitoring and evaluation, and for accreditation of BreastScreen Australia services. Summary Breast cancer is the most common cancer, and second most common cause of cancer-related death, in Australian women. In 2011, 14,465 women were diagnosed with breast cancer, and in 2012 there were 2,795 deaths from this disease. A national screening program introduced in Australia in 1991-BreastScreen Australia- aims to reduce illness and death resulting from breast cancer. This is achieved through organised screening to detect cases of unsuspected breast cancer in women, thus enabling early intervention. Critical to the success of BreastScreen Australia is the ability to measure quality, performance and outcomes to inform a continuous quality improvement approach to breast cancer screening in Australia. This relies on the collection of accurate and consistently defined data for every episode of care for every woman screened. Services accredited under BreastScreen Australia are expected to operate according to National Accreditation Standards (NAS) covering access and participation, cancer detection, assessment, timeliness, data management and information systems, client focus, and governance and management. Standardised and comparable data are also provided annually to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) for monitoring and evaluation of BreastScreen Australia performance against agreed performance indicators in the AIHW\u27s BreastScreen Australia monitoring report series. The BreastScreen Australia data dictionary is intended to be the authoritative source of data definitions used by BreastScreen Australia to meet the need for national consistency in data collected for program monitoring and evaluation, and for accreditation of BreastScreen Australia services. To fulfil this role, it includes metadata standards to support data collected at every episode of care for every woman screened, and data specifications for NAS Measures required for accreditation of BreastScreen Australia services, as well as data specifications for performance indicators used to monitor BreastScreen Australia

Cervical screening in Australia 2012–2013

Presents the latest national statistics monitoring the National Cervical Screening Program, which aims to reduce incidence, morbidity and mortality from cervical cancer. Summary The National Cervical Screening Program (NCSP) aims to reduce cervical cancer cases, as well as illness and death from cervical cancer in Australia, through an organised approach to cervical screening aimed at detecting and treating high-grade abnormalities before possible progression to cervical cancer. The target group is women aged 20–69. This report is the latest in the Cervical screening in Australia series, which is published annually to provide regular monitoring of NCSP participation and performance.   The following statistics are the latest data available for women aged 20–69

Breast cancer survival by size and nodal status in Australia

This report provides relative survival data up to nine years after diagnosis for women diagnosed in Australia with breast cancer in 1997. There are breakdowns of survival proportions by size of cancer, nodal status, geographic region and socio-economic status

The health and welfare of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples: 2015

Examines the differences between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, as well as differences by factors such as age, sex and, in particular remoteness. Background Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people live in all parts of the nation—from large cities to small country towns, from remote tropical coasts to the fringes of the central deserts. They speak a multitude of languages and belong to hundreds of distinct descent groups. The health and welfare of Indigenous people living in the big cities are different to those living in the Torres Strait, which are different again to those living on the outskirts of Alice Springs or those living in remote communities.   Currently, there are over 700,000 Indigenous people in Australia, accounting for 3% of the Australian population. They are the descendants of people who began to occupy Australia more than 50,000 years ago. At the time of European colonisation, an estimated 320,000 Indigenous people occupied Australia, the majority living in the southeast, and in the Murray River valley and its tributaries.   Colonisation severely disrupted Aboriginal society and economy—epidemic disease caused an immediate loss of life, and the occupation of land by settlers and the restriction of Aboriginal people to ‘reserves’ disrupted their ability to support themselves. Over time, this combination of factors had such an impact that by the 1930s only an estimated 80,000 Indigenous people remained in Australia.   Although hundreds of Indigenous people served in the Australian armed forces, especially in the Second World War, it was not until 1962 that Indigenous people had the right to vote, and not until 1967 that a national referendum recognised them as ‘people of their own country’, and included them in the national census. Also, it was not until 1992 that the High Court of Australia declared that the legal concept of terra nullius (‘land belonging to no-one’) was invalid as applied to Australia. The concept essentially assumed that Australia was unoccupied at the time of colonisation and that land could be acquired through occupation (or settlement).   &nbsp

Alcohol and other drug treatment services in Australia 2013–14

Alcohol and other drug treatment services across Australia provide a broad range of treatment services and support to people using drugs and to their families and friends. This report presents the information for 2013–14 about publicly funded alcohol and other drug treatment service agencies, the people they treat and the treatment provided. Summary Around 119,000 clients received over 180,000 treatment episodes from 795 publicly funded alcohol and other drug treatment agencies across Australia An estimated 118,741 clients received treatment in 2013–14. This equates to a rate of 509 clients per 100,000 people, or about 1 in 200 people in the general population. About 2 in 3 clients were male (67%) and 1 in 2 were aged 20–39 (54%). Despite only comprising 2.7% of the population, 1 in 7 (14%) clients were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander. Treatment agencies provided a total of 180,713 treatment episodes—an average of 1.5 episodes per client—and 4 in 5 (79%) episodes ended within 3 months. There has been a steady increase in the number of treatment episodes provided over the last 5 years (from 145,630 to 180,713), an increase of 24%. Between 2012–13 and 2013–14, the estimated number of clients who received treatment increased by 8%. Of those clients who received treatment in 2013–14, 22% also received treatment in 2012–13. The age profile of people receiving treatment suggests there is an ageing cohort of clients Over the 5 years to 2013–14, the proportion of treatment episodes for clients who were aged 20–29 fell from 29% to 27%, while the proportion for those aged 40 and over rose from 30% to 33%. Alcohol continues to be the most common drug leading clients to seek treatment but treatment for use of amphetamines is increasing Alcohol, cannabis, amphetamines and heroin  have remained the most common principal drugs of concern for clients since 2003–04. Nationally, alcohol was the most common principal drug of concern in 2013–14, accounting for 40% of episodes. For clients aged 30 and over, alcohol was the most common principal drug of concern, while for clients aged 10–29, cannabis was the most common. Since 2009–10, the proportion of episodes where alcohol was the most common principal drug of concern has decreased (from 48% to 40%), while the proportion of episodes for amphetamines have increased (from 7% to 17%). The number of episodes for clients injecting and smoking/inhaling amphetamines has also increased, with more than 6 times as many clients smoking/inhaling in 2013–14 as in 2009–10. Most clients have more than 1 drug of concern In more than half (54%) of treatment episodes, the client also reported additional drugs of concern. Just under a third (29%) had 1 additional drug of concern and 13% had 2 drugs. Nicotine and cannabis were the most common additional drugs of concern. Counselling continues to be the most common type of treatment Since 2003–04, the proportion of episodes for each main treatment type has remained fairly stable, with counselling, withdrawal management and assessment only being the most common types of treatment. Counselling continues to be the most common main treatment type provided for clients (2 in 5 episodes since 2003–04). &nbsp

Socio-demographic factors drive regional differences in participation in the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program – An ecological analysis

© 2017 The Authors Objective: To examine if geographic variations in the participation rates in the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program (NBCSP) are related to population-level socio-demographic characteristics. Methods: Data reflecting participation in the NBCSP for 504 Local Government Areas (LGAs) between July 2011 and June 2013 were extracted from the Social Health Atlas of Australia. Logistic regression models were used to examine independent associations (odds ratios [ORs]) between participation, Remoteness Area (RA) and selected socio-demographic variables. Results: Compared to the participation rate for major cities (33.4%), participation was significantly higher in inner regional areas (36.5%, OR=1.15), but was much lower in remote (27.9%, OR=0.77) or very remote areas (25.0%, OR=0.65). When controlling for study period, gender, proportion of persons aged 65 years and older, Indigenous status, cultural background and socioeconomic status, significantly higher rates were observed in all non-metropolitan areas than in major cities. Indigenous status was strongly related to the poorer participation in remote areas. Conclusions: Socio-demographic characteristics, particularly Indigenous status, cultural background and population ageing, seem to be more important drivers of regional disparities in NBCSP participation than geographic remoteness. Implications for public health: This study provides important evidence to understand the regional disparities in participating in the national screening program

Eye health in Australia: a hospital perspective

Reducing preventable vision loss has recently been identified as a priority by Australian governments and non-government organisations. This report is the first in a series of national reports providing an overview of eye health in Australia. The report presents information about the treatment of eye disorders in Australian hospitals and includes trends in hospitalisations, differences across population groups, treatment costs, and waiting times.&nbsp

National Bowel Cancer Screening Program: monitoring report 2013–14

Presents statistics on the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program for Australians invited to take part between July 2013 and June 2014. Summary The National Bowel Cancer Screening Program (NBCSP) aims to reduce the morbidity and mortality from bowel cancer by actively recruiting and screening the target population for early detection or prevention of the disease. The NBCSP has been running since August 2006, and this report focuses on measures of program performance for people invited to participate in screening between July 2013 and June 2014 (those turning 50, 55, 60 or 65). Program participation has increased Of the 1.4 million people invited between July 2013 and June 2014, 36.0% returned a completed bowel cancer screening kit for analysis. This overall participation rate was higher than the participation rate of 33.4% in 2012-13 (Table 1). The increase was mainly due to the start of the second round of invitations to 55 and 60 year olds, who had higher rates of re-participation. For those receiving their second invitation after participating 5 years earlier, the re-participation rate was more than 70%. How many positive screening results were there? Of those participants who returned a valid screening test, about 37,700 (7.5%) had a positive screening result. These people were encouraged to follow up this result by visiting their primary health-care practitioner (PHCP) for referral to further investigative testing (colonoscopy). Sixty-eight per cent of those with a positive screening result were recorded as having had a follow-up colonoscopy at the time of this report. The positivity rate (percentage of positive faecal occult test results) for those participating for the second time (6.3%) was lower than for initial screens (8.2%). How many bowel cancers and adenomas were detected? One participant in every 25 who underwent a colonoscopy to follow up a positive screening result was diagnosed with a confirmed or suspected cancer (149 and 599 participants respectively), while advanced adenomas were found in a further 1,691 participants (1 in 11 colonoscopies assessed). Adenomas are benign growths that have the potential to become cancerous, and their removal is likely to lower the risk of future bowel cancers in these patients. Were there differences between subgroups participating in the NBCSP? Women were more likely to participate in screening than men; conversely, men had higher rates of screen-detected bowel cancers, overall bowel cancer incidence and mortality. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participants, participants who lived in Regional and remote regions, and participants who lived in areas of lower socioeconomic status, continue to have higher rates of positive screening results, yet lower rates of follow-up colonoscopies than other participants

Australian burden of disease study: fatal burden of disease 2010

This is the first report in the Australian Burden of Disease Study series. It provides estimates of fatal burden for 2010 showing the contribution of each disease group by age and sex. The three leading disease groups were Cancer (35%), Cardiovascular diseases (23%) and Injuries (13%), and these contributed more than 70% of total fatal burden. Summary  Burden of disease analysis is a way to simultaneously count and compare the fatal and non-fatal impacts of different diseases and injuries. It uses information from multiple data sources to quantify the impact on a population of illness and premature death from all diseases and injuries. It uses a summary measure, the DALY (disability-adjusted life year), to describe the resulting health loss.  One (1) DALY represents 1 year of healthy life lost, either through premature death or from living with an illness or injury. The last Australian national burden of disease study was published in 2007, using 2003 data (Begg et al. 2007). An analysis of the burden of disease in Indigenous Australians was last undertaken for 2003 (Vos et al. 2007). This update of Australian estimates builds on methodological developments in recent global and country burden of disease studies, modified for the Australian context.  This report provides estimates of fatal burden for Australia for 2010; that is, the component of the DALY resulting from premature death. The results in this report are described for broad disease groups, age and sex

National health data dictionary: version 16.2

Overview: The National Health Data Dictionary (NHDD) provides national data standards for the health sector. This version (Version 16.2) reflects changes to data standards between July 2013 and June 2014. Eight national minimum data sets, 12 data set specifications, 16 data element clusters, 174 data elements, 13 classification schemes and 13 glossary items have been added to the NHDD. Nine national minimum data sets, 4 data set specifications, 7 data element clusters, 64 data elements, 1 classification schemes and 1 glossary item have been superseded and 12 data elements have been retired since the previous version of the NHDD (Version 16.1) was published