Our regional health

Introduction

Regional health profiles are impacted by the sociodemographic characteristics of the area. Age distributions, in particular, influence the types and levels of health conditions that are more common.

Presentation of results in this section

In this section, regional results may be presented for a single year or be based on two or more years combined. This is because multiple years of data may be needed to produce reliable results in areas that have smaller population sizes. When this occurs, Queensland results are also provided for this same time period, and will therefore differ from Queensland results in the main sections of this report.

Another difference with Queensland results in this section is that they may be derived from a different data source than in the main sections of this report. This is because regional information was not available from the same source.

Both age-standardised (ASR or standardised rates), which adjust for different age distributions across areas, and crude rates that may better reflect current health service utilisation, are provided in most cases.

Mortality

A selection of mortality rates are described below. Additional mortality rates are available in Figure 1.

In Queensland in 2020–2022:

• Crude all cause mortality rates were highest in Wide Bay HHS, Central West HHS and Darling Downs HHS (1,000.0, 909.5 and 817.7 per 100,000 persons, respectively)
• Standardised all cause mortality rates were highest in Torres and Cape HHS, North West HHS and Central West HHS (785.7, 778.5 and 636.2 per 100,000 persons, respectively).

For mortality due to specific conditions, in 2020–2022 in Queensland:

• The regions with the highest crude mortality rates for 7 lifestyle-related chronic conditions were Wide Bay HHS, Central West HHS and Darling Downs HHS (352.0, 333.6 and 280.4 per 100,000 persons, respectively)
• The regions with the highest age-standardised mortality rates for 7 lifestyle-related chronic conditions were Torres and Cape HHS, North West HHS and Central West HHS (283.2, 280.3 and 224.3 per 100,000 persons, respectively)
• The regions with the highest crude mortality rates for coronary heart disease were Wide Bay HHS, Darling Downs HHS and Central West HHS (103.7, 97.1 and 91.3 per 100,000 persons, respectively).

Hospitalisations

A selection of hospitalisation rates are described below. Additional hospitalisation rates are available in Figure 1.

For all-cause hospitalisations in Queensland in 2022–23:

• Crude rates were highest in North West HHS, Wide Bay HHS and Townsville HHS (74,772, 66,329 and 61,851 per 100,000 persons, respectively)
• The regions with the highest age-standardised rates were North West HHS, Torres and Cape HHS and Townsville HHS (80,032, 66,980 and 56,921 per 100,000 persons, respectively).

In Queensland in 2022–23, hospitalisation rates for specific groups of conditions varied across hospital and health service regions with:

• The highest crude rates for total potentially preventable hospitalisations in Torres and Cape HHS, North West HHS and Wide Bay HHS (6,253, 6,049 and 5,603 per 100,000 persons, respectively)
• The highest crude rates of hospitalisation for dementia in Wide Bay HHS, Sunshine Coast HHS and Gold Coast HHS (138, 124 and 107 per 100,000 persons, respectively).

Figure 1: Mortality and hospitalisations by region, Queensland

Additional information

Data and statistics

Data in this section were sourced from:

• Queensland Cancer Control Analysis Team (See Cancer Alliance Queensland for further information)
• BreastScreen Queensland (See Cancer screening for further information)
• National Bowel Cancer Screening Program (See Cancer screening for further information)
• 2021 Census (See Health: Census for further information).

Further information

Australian Bureau of Statistics:

• Health conditions prevalence (See Health Conditions Prevalence for further information)
• Long-term health conditions (See Long-term health conditions for further information).

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare:

• Chronic disease (See Chronic disease for further information).

Section technical notes

The 7 lifestyle-related chronic conditions (with ICD-10-AM codes) include: breast cancer (C50), lung cancer (C33-C34), colorectal cancer (C18-C20), COPD (J40-J44), coronary heart disease (I20-I25), stroke (I60-I64), and diabetes (E10-E14).

The ABS recommends the use of data sources other than the Census, such as the NHS, to understand the prevalence of diseases in Australia, due to various Census data limitations.³ See Comparing ABS long-term health conditions data sources on the ABS website for further details. Other factors to consider when interpreting the Census long-term health condition information are:

• When comparing across regions, it is important to note that older people are at higher risk of developing long-term health conditions. Regions with higher proportions of older people, such as Wide Bay HHS (with more than a quarter of the population 65 years and older in 2020), are likely to also have higher proportion of people with these conditions.
• the proportion who did not state whether they have long-term health conditions varied by region—ranging from 6.9% in Metro North HHS to 15.2% in Torres and Cape HHS. The proportion of participants with missing responses who may have a long-term health condition is unknown. In line with ABS reporting, missing responses were included in calculations (in the proportion denominator) and results should be interpreted accordingly.

Figures on this page are interactive

To learn more about how to navigate interactive figures, dashboards, and visualisations see About this Report.