The Health of the people of New South Wales
Report of the Chief Health Officer
Summary
The people of New South Wales generally live long and productive lives. A child born in 2006 would now expect to live 79.3 years if male and 84.2 years if female, an increase of just under 3 years since 1997. Australian longevity was third only to Japan and Switzerland in 2006.
However, our population is also subject to a heavy burden of disease. These diseases include, in order of burden, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, mental disorders, neurological disorders, injuries, respiratory diseases and diabetes. Together these diseases constitute just over 80% of all disease burden in our community.
The incidence of many of these diseases can be reduced or prevented, and others have had improved survival over the last decade with the advancement of medical science and research. Prevention requires addressing the determinants of poor health and substantial changes in life-style behaviours associated with disease risk. These risky behaviours include smoking, poor diet low in fruit and vegetables, little exercise, and high alcohol consumption.
This report provides key information on the status of the health of our community, current challenges and inequities and trends in these factors. It provides information to all those working to improve health on the effectiveness of their programs. The report should assist the public to take steps to maintain healthy lives.
The report
The health of the people of NSW - Report of the Chief Health Officer consists of three components:
e-CHO
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The electronic report or e-CHO, which is an interactive web-based report providing graphs and complete data tables and explanatory text on over 400 population health indicators, as well as files for each indicator which can be downloaded by users. | |
| Click here for e-CHO |
Data Books
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Data books of each chapter in portable document format (pdf) containing all graphs and tables on a particular topic. Data books can be downloaded and printed from the website. | |
| Click here for Data Book list |
Summary Report
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This new Summary Report, which provides summary tables of trends in key population health indicators, a comparison of differences in key indicators among the eight NSW health areas, an overview of each chapter of the e-CHO and a detailed analysis of two special topics – this year on inequalities in mortality and childhood overweight and obesity. | |
| Click here for 2008 Summary report |