Health

Provides information on health priorities, fertility and birth; lifestyle risk factors, use of hospitals and causes of death.

Overall, the City of Boroondara has a high level of health and wellbeing demonstrated by an increasing life expectancy and a declining death rate.

Maternal health

Some of the main findings include:

In Boroondara there was a low birth rate, and higher than average maternal age.
Participation in the City’s maternal and child health services is consistent with state-wide trends and breast feeding rates are the highest in the Eastern Metropolitan Region.
Immunisation rates are equal to or higher than the Eastern Metropolitan Region.
Almost all Boroondara children in their preparatory year of primary school had their health rated as "generally healthy" by their parents and majority of primary school children have teeth free of dental decay.

Hospitalisations

In Boroondara, the rate of hospitalisations for alcohol use and related disorders was significantly higher than the Victorian average.

Burden of disease

The top five causes of burden of disease and injury in Boroondara were:

ischaemic heart disease
stroke
dementia
depression
lung cancer.

This indicates that mental health conditions and health conditions related to lifestyle (heart disease, diabetes) contributed to years lost of healthy life for adults in Boroondara. Cancers, diseases of the circulatory system and diseases of the respiratory system were the most common causes of death.

Published: July 2009
Next updated: November 2010