Asthma Deaths Down but Still High Comparitively Internationally

The death rate from asthma in Australia has dropped by 70% since the 1980s, a new report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) has found.

While the mortality rate had seen a substantial decline in recent years, it was still relatively high on an international scale, at 1.5 deaths per 100,000 people, AIHW Australian Centre for Airways disease Monitoring spokesman Professor Guy Marks said.

‘Mortality from asthma and COPD in Australia’ found in 2011, asthma was the underlying cause of 378 deaths, 0.3% of all deaths in the country that year. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) was the underlying cause of 5,767 deaths among people aged 55 and over, or 4.4% of all deaths for that age group, the report found.

Marks said the report showed that COPD was a leading cause of death in Australia and internationally, and many deaths due to both asthma and COPD were potentially preventable. 

The report found that death rates due to asthma increased with age and peaked in late winter for those aged 65 and over. Death rates from COPD among males were almost double those among females and were usually highest in winter also, Marks said.

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Source: pharmacydaily.com.au, Thursday 14 August 2014