This publication describes the state of dental health of Australian children examined by school dental service staff in 2009 and provides insights into the dental health of rural children. The findings are drawn from the Child Dental Health Survey 2009, in which the data of 87,269 children aged 5-14 from most states and territories, except...

This bulletin summarises what is known about rheumatoid arthritis and presents available Australian national statistics on the subject. Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease – one where the body’s immune system attacks its own tissues – and thus differs from osteoarthritis which is characterised by wear-and-tear of joints. Joints bear the brunt of autoimmunity in...

This report examines the effects of improvements in Indigenous identification in hospitals data on patterns of hospitalised injury among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. These improvements have resulted in the inclusion of hospital separation data from New South Wales and Victoria in addition to data from the Northern Territory, Western Australia, South Australia and...

This report studies the feasibility of using the National Hospital Morbidity Database (NHMD) to investigate the relationship between obesity and hospitalised injury in Australia. It concludes that the NHMD does not currently provide a reliable basis for measuring obesity among admitted patients, nor to assess the characteristics of injury cases with obesity. Importantly, the data...

In August 2012, the Independent Hospital Pricing Authority (IHPA) engaged the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) to develop nationally consistent definitions and guidelines for subacute and non-acute admitted patient care and care types for implementation from 1 July 2013 to support activity based funding. Method In developing these definitions and guidelines, the AIHW...