STORY: Dementia on brink of becoming Australia's leading cause of death: data
SHOOTING TIME: Oct. 11, 2024
DATELINE: Oct. 11, 2024
LENGTH: 00:00:50
LOCATION: Canberra
CATEGORY: HEALTH

SHOTLIST:
1. wide of dementia patients
2. various of hospital facilities
3. wide of elderly patients receiving medical care in hospital
4. close of dementia education in Australia

STORYLINE:

Dementia is on the brink of surpassing heart diseases as the leading cause of death in Australia for the first time, official data revealed.
   
According to the data, which was published on Thursday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, ischaemic heart disease, also called coronary heart disease and coronary artery disease, was responsible for 9.2 percent of deaths in Australia in 2023 while dementia accounted for 9.1 percent.
   
Lauren Moran, head of mortality statistics at the bureau, said that there has been a drop in heart disease mortality and a rise in dementia deaths over time due to improvements in medical treatments and health care for the former and an aging population.
   
At its peak in 1968, ischaemic heart disease accounted for 30.5 percent of Australian deaths. Over the last 50 years the bureau said that the mortality rate for ischaemic heart disease has declined 87.9 percent while that for dementia has increased 842.8 percent in the same period.
      
Dementia, which includes Alzheimer's disease, has been the leading cause of death for Australian women since 2016 and is the leading cause of death in the states of New South Wales and South Australia as well as the Australian Capital Territory.
  
Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Canberra.
(XHTV)