3303.0 - Causes of Death, Australia, 2010

Quality Declaration

ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 20/03/2012

Page tools: Print

Print Page Print all pages in this product

Print All

Contents >> Deaths of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Persons >> Leading causes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths

LEADING CAUSES OF ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER DEATHS

Due to data quality issues with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander causes of death data, the following analysis is based on 2,600 deaths which is an aggregate of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and Northern Territory data only for the 2010 reference year. Caution should still be taken when interpreting data for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians presented in this publication, especially with regard to year to year changes. See Explanatory Notes 74-83 for further information.

Diseases of the circulatory system (I00-I99) (668 or 25.7%), Neoplasms (C00-D48) (495 or 19.0%), External causes of mortality (V01-Y98) (353 or 13.6%) and Endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases (E00-E90) (251 or 9.7%) accounted for just over two-thirds (68.0%) of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths.

Table 6.1 highlights the leading causes based on the World Health Organization recommendation for leading causes (see Chapter 2, Leading Causes of Death for more information). The top 10 leading causes of death account for just over half (52.3%) of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths.

6.1 WHO leading causes(a), NSW, Qld, SA, WA and NT(b) - by Indigenous status - 2010(c)

	Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander	SDR	Non-Indigenous	SDR	Rate ratio	Rate Difference
Cause of Death and ICD-10 code	no.	rate	no.	rate

Ischaemic heart diseases (I20-I25)	349	179.2	15 066	89.1	2.0	90.1
Diabetes (E10-E14)	218	113.9	2 431	14.4	7.9	99.5
Malignant neoplasm of trachea, bronchus and lung (C33-C34)	120	65.9	5 779	33.9	1.9	31.9
Cerebrovascular diseases (I60-I69)	119	84.5	7 954	47.1	1.8	37.3
Chronic lower respiratory diseases (J40-J47)	115	74.6	4 184	24.8	3.0	49.9
Intentional self-harm [[suicide] (X60-X84)(d)	110	23.8	1 556	9.9	2.4	13.9
Cirrhosis and other diseases of liver (K70-K76)	95	30.1	1 060	6.3	4.8	23.8
Diseases of the urinary system (N00-N39)	90	52.4	2 159	12.8	4.1	39.6
Land transport accidents (V01-V89)	82	17.4	927	5.9	2.9	11.5
Certain conditions originating in the perinatal period (P00-P96)	63	6.7	400	2.7	2.5	4.0

(a) Causes listed are the leading causes of death for all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths registered in 2010, based on WHO recommended tabulation of leading causes. See Explanatory Notes 46-48 for further information.
(b) Data are based on five jurisdictions for which the quality of Indigenous identification in mortality data is considered acceptable (NSW, Qld, SA, WA and NT only). Care should be taken when interpreting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander causes of death data for 2010. See Technical Note: Retrospective Deaths by Causes of Death, Queensland, 2010 and Registration of outstanding deaths, Queensland, 2010, from the Deaths, Australia, 2010 publication (cat. no. 3302.0).
(c) Causes of death data for 2010 are preliminary and subject to a revisions process. See Explanatory Notes 35-39 and Technical Notes, Causes of Death Revisions, 2006 and Causes of Death Revisions, 2008 and 2009.
(d) Excludes Sequelae of suicide (Y87.0) as per the WHO recommended tabulation of leading causes. Care needs to be taken in interpreting figures relating to suicide. See Explanatory Notes 98-101.

Figure 6.2 presents further comparisons of age-standardised rates for specific causes for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous populations.

Graph Image for Selected underlying causes of deaths, Standardised Death Rate, By Indigenous status 2010 (b)(c)

Footnote(s): (a) Includes deaths of persons identified as Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander or both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander. (b) See Explanatory Notes 89-104 for further information on specific issues relating to 2010 data. (c) Causes of death data for 2010 are preliminary and subject to a revisions process. See Explanatory Notes 35-39 and Technical Notes, Causes of Death Revisions, 2006 and Causes of Death Revisions, 2008 and 2009.

Source(s): Causes of Death, Australia

All rate ratios presented in the following sections are based on age standardised death rates (that are per 100,000 persons) comparing the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous populations.