By KATIE DE VERTEUIL
HEART disease remains the country’s single leading killer, with the recent release of the 2013 Cause of Death Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
The study looks at the 147,678 deaths reported last year and presents a full picture of mortality patterns across the Australian population.
Heart disease accounted for approximately 20,000 deaths, closely followed by dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, which claimed 11,000 lives in 2013.
While the National Heart Foundation of Australia is not alarmed by these figures, they are urging that people take the statistics seriously.
“Millions of Aussie families are broken every year because of the loss of a loved one due to heart disease,” National Heart Foundation CEO Mary Barry said.
“Each day, around 54 Australians die as a result of heart disease, that’s one person every 27 minutes.
“If government dollars were focused on keeping people healthy we could reduce the number of preventable deaths from a whole host of chronic diseases,” Ms Barry continued.
“Each day, more than 400 Australians are admitted to hospital due to heart disease, with more than one quarter of these people aged below 60.
Ms Barry said that as the population aged and some risk factors including high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure, being physically inactive and being overweight became more common or failed to improve, heart disease and stroke would become more prevalent and death rates could further rise in the years ahead.
BREAK OUT BOX
LEADING CAUSES OF DEATH IN AUSTRALIA – the facts
* A total of 147,678 people died in 2013
* Life expectancy: Males : 80.1 ; females: 84.3
* Total male deaths – 75,782
* Total female deaths – 71,896
* Heart disease – 20,000 deaths
* Dementia and Alzheimer’s – 11,000 deaths
* Life expectancy – 80.1 for males and 84.3 for females
* Lung cancer – 8000 deaths
* Suicide – 2520 deaths
SOURCE: Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Causes of Death report.
