New RHD diagnoses in all Australians

In this report, a ‘new’ RHD diagnosis is defined as one that was diagnosed between 1 January 2013 and 31 December 2017, and these will be the focus of the analysis in the next sections. In most cases, it is not possible to identify a year of onset for RHD as the condition may be asymptomatic initially. The analysis is based on year of diagnosis.

There were 1,261 reports of new RHD diagnoses in 2013–2017 (3 per 100,000 population). Australian annual diagnosis rates remained relatively steady at around 3 diagnoses per 100,000 population each year. The state and territory specific rates for 2013–2017 were 2 per 100,000 population for Queensland, 2 per 100,000 population for WA, 1 per 100,000 population for SA and 37 per 100,000 population for NT.

In 2013–2017, just over 1,000 new RHD diagnoses (83% of all diagnoses) were made among Indigenous Australians. The annual rate remained steady over time, ranging from 48 to 52 per 100,000 population. Over the 5 years, the overall rate in Indigenous Australians was around 125 times that in non-Indigenous Australians. 

Table 2: Number and rate per 100,000 population of new RHD diagnoses by Indigenous status, 2013–2017
Year Indigenous
(number)		 Indigenous
(rate per 100,000)		 Non-Indigenous
(number)		 Non-Indigenous
(rate per 100,000)

2013

202

50.5

38

0.4

2014

214

52.3

46

0.5

2015

199

47.6

34

0.4

2016

204

47.8

46

0.5

2017

224

51.3

34

0.4

Total 

1,043

49.9

198

0.4

Note: Rates are crude rates per 100,000 population.

Source: AIHW analysis of National Rheumatic Heart Disease data collection.