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Potentially Avoidable Deaths

Potentially avoidable deaths comprises potentially preventable deaths and potentially treatable deaths. Potentially preventable deaths are those which are amenable to screening and primary prevention, such as immunisation, and reflect the effectiveness of the current preventive health activities of the health sector. Deaths from potentially treatable conditions are those which are amenable to therapeutic interventions, and reflect the safety and quality of the current treatment system. The causes of death used in the tabulation of potentially avoidable deaths are listed on the Metadata Online Registry (METeOR) under the National Healthcare Agreement, Performance: PI 16 - Potentially avoidable deaths, 2015. Potentially avoidable mortality is calculated using data for persons aged under 75 years.

Potentially avoidable deaths may be influenced by a person's level of access to medical and other services, which may in-turn be influenced by their place of usual residence. Table 5.1 presents potentially avoidable deaths for Greater Capital City Statistical Areas (GCCSAs). GCCSAs are defined in the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) as being built up from Statistical Area Level 4s to represent the socioeconomic area of each of the eight state and territory capital cities. GCCSAs contain not only the urban area of the capital city, but also the surrounding and non-urban areas where much of the population has strong links to the capital city through, for example, shopping or working within the city. The area not defined as being part of the greater capital city is represented as the 'rest of state/territory'.

Capital cities consistently recorded a lower rate of potentially avoidable deaths than their regional counterparts. In 2014, Australia’s combined capital city regions recorded an age-standardised avoidable death rate which was 1.4 times lower than that of areas outside of capital city regions.

The age-standardised avoidable death rate in Australia was 108.0 per 100,000 persons. The capital city areas that recorded the highest age-standardised avoidable death rates were Greater Darwin and Greater Hobart (150.7 and 120.8 per 100,000 persons, respectively). The capital cities with the lowest age-standardised avoidable death rate were the Australian Capital Territory, Greater Melbourne and Greater Sydney (82.8, 91.0 and 91.2 per 100,000 persons, respectively). Of all rest of state regions, 'Rest of Northern Territory' recorded the highest avoidable death rate (344.3 per 100,000 persons), which was 3.2 times higher than the rate for Australia as a whole. All ‘rest of state/territory’ regions reported avoidable mortality deaths rates that were higher than the rate for Australia.

In terms of sex differences, the avoidable standardised death rate was higher for males than females in all regions. Overall, the age-standardised avoidable death rate for all males was 138.4 per 100,000 persons, which was 1.8 times higher than the rate for females (78.2 per 100,000). When considering all regions, 'Rest of Northern Territory' was the area with the smallest sex difference in age-standardised avoidable death rate (1.1 times higher for males than females). The 'Rest of South Australia' recorded the greatest sex difference (2.1 times higher for males than females).

5.1 AVOIDABLE DEATHS(a) BY REGION OF USUAL RESIDENCE AND SEX, 2014
	Males		Females		Persons
Region of usual residence	no.	SDR	no.	SDR	no.	SDR	Rate ratio(e)	Rate difference(f)
Greater Sydney	2 766	117.1	1 607	66.1	4 373	91.2	0.8	-16.9
Rest of NSW	2 531	166.2	1 469	93.4	4 000	129.7	1.2	21.7
NSW Total	5 366	136.8	3 097	76.9	8 463	106.6	1.0	-1.5
Greater Melbourne	2 507	117.8	1 470	65.6	3 977	91.0	0.8	-17.0
Rest of Vic	1 334	168.5	762	93.4	2 096	130.8	1.2	22.7
Vic Total	3 879	131.5	2 243	73.2	6 122	101.8	0.9	-6.2
Greater Brisbane	1 412	129.6	862	77.0	2 274	103.0	1.0	-5.1
Rest of Qld	1 942	148.1	1 097	84.0	3 039	116.1	1.1	8.1
Qld Total	3 403	140.9	1 976	81.2	5 379	110.9	1.0	2.9
Greater Adelaide	878	131.6	544	76.4	1 422	103.3	1.0	-4.8
Rest of SA	397	170.2	184	81.4	581	126.8	1.2	18.8
SA Total	1 285	142.2	737	78.4	2 022	109.9	1.0	1.8
Greater Perth	1 218	124.4	640	64.4	1 858	94.2	0.9	-13.8
Rest of WA	519	176.6	258	98.8	777	139.8	1.3	31.8
WA Total	1 779	139.8	914	72.7	2 693	106.5	1.0	-1.6
Greater Hobart	175	146.9	120	95.5	295	120.8	1.1	12.7
Rest of Tas	283	163.1	201	108.5	484	135.8	1.3	27.8
Tas Total	465	159.1	324	105.0	789	132.0	1.2	23.9
Greater Darwin	125	188.5	65	106.5	190	150.7	1.4	42.6
Rest of NT	159	354.3	133	334.5	292	344.3	3.2	236.3
NT Total	302	269.7	201	198.0	503	236.6	2.2	128.6
Australian Capital Territory	185	101.1	121	65.4	306	82.8	0.8	-25.2
Greater capital cities total	9 266	122.0	5 429	69.0	14 695	95.0	0.9	-13.0
Rest of states total	7 165	164.1	4 104	93.7	11 269	129.1	1.2	21.0
Australia(g)	16 668	138.4	9 615	78.2	26 283	108.0	—	—