Health

A diagnosis is a prerequisite for targeted and successful treatment. This does not just apply to the work of doctors in practice and in hospitals. Just as the precise description of a sick person’s symptoms leads to the correct diagnosis and appropriate therapy, statistical recording of the health status of the population serves as a basis for efficient, need-based health policy and targeted work in the field of prevention and health promotion. In this context, routine compilation of statistics performs an important function.

Cause of death statistics have a tradition in Austria dating back to the 19th century and provide important indicators for the health status of the population as well as key data for clinical and medical studies. The data obtained from cause of death statistics forms the basis for numerous scientific studies investigating geographical, demographic and socioeconomic variations in mortality for specific diseases. Research questions relate to the aetiology of diseases, the evaluation of diagnostic and therapeutic techniques, the investigation of health problems in specific groups, and the identification of areas in which deaths may be prevented.

Cancer incidence (number of newly diagnosed cases of cancer per calendar year) is an important element of health reporting and serves as a basis for epidemiological research and for national and international scientific studies in the field of oncology. Comparison of cancer incidence and cancer mortality enables the success of health policy measures to be evaluated. The epidemiology of cancer incidence and cancer mortality plays a key role in health reporting. Data from the cancer registry and from cause of death statistics is also of major importance in the evaluation of screening programmes.

Statistics on hospital discharges by main diagnosis at the time of discharge from hospital (diagnosis documentation) and statistics on individual medical services (service documentation) are compiled annually. Statistics are case-related, subdivided according to sociodemographic characteristics (age and gender) and published at Länder (federal province) level. Other important indicators in these statistics include discharge status (discharged alive or deceased) and the (average) length of stay.

Health surveys have been conducted in Austria since the 1970s and are a vital source of data for information on the health status and behaviour of the population as well as on the utilisation of health care facilities. The current survey (Austrian Health Survey 2006/2007) provides representative results for the Austrian population aged 15 and above. The Austrian Health Survey 2006/2007 (PDF available in German only, 1943 KB) report is available on the Ministry of Health, Family and Youth homepage (available in German only).

A further component of health statistics is data on health care staff and facilities as well as social insurance facts that are relevant to health.

The results of the calculation of health expenditure in Austria enable the health care system to be viewed from an economic perspective and provide information on the financing of the Austrian health care system and on the use of this public and private funding according to health services and goods. In order to enable an assessment of the relative importance of health expenditure in the Austrian national economy and ensure international comparability, health expenditure is calculated in accordance with the OECD System of Health Accounts methodology and shown in relation to the gross domestic product.