The AIHW’s women’s health report has found that women are living longer but are more likely to be living with some sort of disease.
Breast cancer deaths have fallen by almost 30% between 2000 and 2024, and cancer deaths in women overall have decreased by over 20%.
However overall cancer incidents in females have increased by 10%, mostly because of the ageing population and total population size increase. Despite this, the estimated incidence of cancer was lower in females than males in 2024.
These are some of the findings from The Health of Women in Australia report, released today by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).
It coincides with Jean Hailes Women’s Health Week (1-5 September), Australia’s largest event dedicated to the health and wellbeing of all women, girls and gender-diverse people.
Other key facts from the report include:
- In 2024, women’s health burden was mostly from living with illness (60%) rather than dying early (40%). For men, it was the reverse.
- A girl born in 2024 can expect to live until 85.5 years with about 86% of their lives (or 73.8 years) in full health.
- Women still report higher rates of anxiety and depression than men.
- Dementia is the leading cause of death for women in 2023, responsible for 12% of deaths (almost double the rate in men).
- Around one in four women have experienced violence by an intimate partner since age 15 years.
Burden of disease
The AIHW report found that women are more likely to live with illness, whereas men are more likely to die early from it. In 2024, 60% of women’s health burden came from living with disease and 40% from dying early. For men, it was the opposite, with 52% of the total burden because of fatal disease burden.
61% of females are living with at least one long-term health condition (compared to 60% of men), although what the health condition was dependent on a woman’s age.
“The diseases that cause the most burden for females differ across the life course,” the report said.
“Mental health conditions cause a larger proportion of the burden in younger women while chronic conditions, including musculoskeletal conditions and cancers cause more burden in older women.”
The prevalence of chronic conditions for women increases with age, except for anxiety, which is less common as women age.
Multi-morbidity was also slightly more common overall among females. 39% of women live with two or more long-term health conditions compared to 37% of males.
“Anxiety and depression were the most commonly co-occurring conditions amongst women in all age groups, except 65 and over where osteoarthritis and back problems were more commonly co-occurring,” the AIHW reported.
Menal health concerns are growing in women, with 25% of women aged 16–85 having experienced a mental illness in the last 12 months, up from 22% in 2007.
44% of women had experienced a mental illness at some point in their lifetime.
“The increase for women was most pronounced in those aged 16–24, with almost half (45%) of this population experiencing a mental illness in the 12 months before the 2020–2022 survey,” the report said.
The AIHW report highlighted that over 2.5 million Australian women had a disability in 2022, 22% of the female population.
“The longer people live, the more likely they are to experience some form of disability. The proportion of women with disability increases from 11% of females aged 25–34 to 40% of females aged 65–69,” the report said.
Mortality
Women continue to live longer than males, with a median age at death at 85 years compared to 80 years for men.
Dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, was the leading cause of death for females.
“It was responsible for almost twice as many deaths among females as males and was the underlying cause in 12% and 6.4% of female and male deaths, respectively,” the report said.
Other leading causes of death include breast cancer, atrial fibrillation and heart failure, with hypertension the most common contributory cause of death in females.
Risk factors
The report highlighted that 33% of the total burden in females was attributable to risk factors including overweight and obesity and tobacco, alcohol and other drug use.
61% of women aged 18 years and over living with overweight or obesity, which was responsible for 7.7% of the total burden of disease in 2024.
The report highlighted the particular concern of family, domestic and sexual violence (FDSV). More than one in four women have experienced family and domestic violence, and over one in five women have experienced sexual violence since the age of 15 years.
“FDSV has health and behavioural outcomes that can be serious and long-lasting. It can have direct impacts on health, for example, through assault injury, sexually transmitted infection, and post-traumatic stress, depression, or suicide,” the AIHW highlighted.
Related
Women’s healthcare
The report found females were more likely to access healthcare, accounting for 52% of total hospitalisations in 2023-24, and 58% of total non-hospital Medicare-subsided services.
“The proportion of females who had a Medicare-subsidised general practitioner (GP) attendance was higher than males (88% of females compared with 80% of males). There were also higher proportions of females than males who had allied health attendance (44% compared with 33%) and specialist attendances (34% compared with 29%),” the report said.
Despite this, women and gender diverse people common report experiencing gender bias or discrimination in healthcare.
“Women reported positive experiences of health care stemmed from strong relationships where they felt listened to and believed by health care providers,” the report said.
Some of the primary health concerns of women include maternal and perinatal health and sexual and reproductive health.
The report highlighted that:
- Around one in seven (14%) women born in 1973–78 was estimated to have been diagnosed with endometriosis by age 44–49 years.
- Almost four in five (78%) Australian women aged 18–44 years have experienced bothersome (heavy, irregular or painful) periods in the last five years and almost half (44%) have missed days of work or study as a result.
- One in four women (26%) aged 45–64 years reported that symptoms attributed to menopause made it hard to do daily activities.
Healthy ageing was another key area of concern, particularly as nearly two third of Australians living with dementia are women.
Dementia risk can be reduced by taking preventative action on known risk factors, which include “less education, high cholesterol, hearing loss, visual loss, hypertension, physical inactivity, diabetes, social isolation, excessive alcohol consumption, air pollution, smoking, obesity, traumatic brain injury, and depression.”
“Understanding the health concerns of older women, reducing risk factors, and providing preventive health measures throughout life are important facets of healthy ageing,” the report said.
The women’s health report is on the AIHW website.
