Nearly half Australians living with chronic conditions: report

Almost half of Australians are living with a chronic condition, impacting their professional and social lives, a report has found.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) on Wednesday published a report on the life and work experiences of Australians with chronic conditions.

It found that 47 percent of people aged 15-64 live with at least one chronic condition or illness including asthma, arthritis, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, as well as mental and behavioral conditions.

One in five Australians had two or more chronic conditions and nearly 90 percent of deaths in 2018 were associated with 10 chronic diseases measured by the report.

The report measured how chronic conditions impact other parts of people's lives, revealing that 71 percent of sufferers were employed either part-time or full time compared to 80 percent of the rest of the population.

"More than a quarter of 45-64-year-olds with chronic conditions self-assessed their health as poor, compared to 16 percent of those aged 15-44," AIHW spokesperson Katherine Faulks said in a media release.

"Among mature working-age Australians with chronic conditions, individual-based measures of socioeconomic position such as family composition of household, home ownership, and education were found to be important factors in their likelihood of reporting poor self-assessed health," she said.

"Mature working-age Australians with chronic conditions were more likely to report poor health if they had any of the following characteristics: three or more types of chronic conditions; any activity limitations or a disability; were male; were renters; were living alone; had no tertiary qualifications," Katherine explained.

Twenty-nine percent of Australians with chronic conditions live outside of major cities compared to 23 percent of the rest of the population, according to the report.