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. 2013 Jul 23;8(7):e67494.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0067494. Print 2013.

Prevalence of chronic conditions in Australia

Christopher Harrison  1 , Helena Britt, Graeme Miller, Joan Henderson
Affiliations

Prevalence of chronic conditions in Australia

Christopher Harrison et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Objectives: To estimate prevalence of chronic conditions among patients seeing a general practitioner (GP), patients attending general practice at least once in a year, and the Australian population.

Design setting and participants: A sub-study of the BEACH (Bettering the Evaluation and Care of Health) program, a continuous national study of general practice activity conducted between July 2008 and May 2009. Each of 290 GPs provided data for about 30 consecutive patients (total 8,707) indicating diagnosed chronic conditions, using their knowledge of the patient, patient self-report, and patient's health record.

Main outcome measures: Estimates of prevalence of chronic conditions among patients surveyed, adjusted prevalence in patients who attended general practice at least once that year, and national population prevalence.

Results: Two-thirds (66.3%) of patients surveyed had at least one chronic condition: most prevalent being hypertension (26.6%), hyperlipidaemia (18.5%), osteoarthritis (17.8%), depression (13.7%), gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (11.6%), asthma (9.5%) and Type 2 diabetes (8.3%). For patients who attended general practice at least once, we estimated 58.8% had at least one chronic condition. After further adjustment we estimated 50.8% of the Australian population had at least one chronic condition: hypertension (17.4%), hyperlipidaemia (12.7%), osteoarthritis (11.1%), depression (10.5%) and asthma (8.0%) being most prevalent.

Conclusions: This study used GPs to gather information from their knowledge, the patient, and health records, to provide prevalence estimates that overcome weaknesses of studies using patient self-report or health record audit alone. Our results facilitate examination of primary care resource use in management of chronic conditions and measurement of prevalence of multimorbidity in Australia.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The BEACH program from which the data for this study is drawn is supported by a consortium of industry and government bodies. The funding organisations during the period the data for this study was collected were: The Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, AstraZeneca Pty Ltd (Australia), Janssen-Cilag Pty Ltd, Merck Sharp and Dohme (Australia) Pty Ltd, Pfizer Australia, Abbott Australiasia Pty Ltd, Sanofi-Aventis Australia Pty Ltd, Wyeth Australia Pty Ltd, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Australia Pty Ltd, GloxoSmithKline Australia Pty Ltd and the Australian Government Department of Veterans' Affairs. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. BEACH sub-study questionnaire on prevalence of chronic conditions.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. United Nation (2001) World population ageing: 1950–2050. Canberra: ABS.
    1. Britt HC, Harrison CM, Miller GC, Knox SA (2008) Prevalence and patterns of multimorbidity in Australia. Med J Aust 189: 72–77. - PubMed
    1. Harrison C, Britt H (2011) General practice—workforce gaps now and in 2020. Aust Fam Physician 40: 12–15. - PubMed
    1. NHS Information Centre for Health and Social Care (2013) Health Survey for England. Available: http://data.gov.uk/dataset/health_survey_for_england.
    1. National Center for Health Statistics (2013) National Health Interview Survey. Available: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhis.htm.

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