© 1974 Oxford University Press
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The Traralgon Health and Illness Survey Part 2: Prevalence of Illness and Use of Health Care
1 Research Fellow, Royal Australian College of General Practitioners Deakin Street Clinic, Traralgon 3844, Australia.
An interview survey with 371 randomly selected families (1,250 people) and concurrent information collected from health care agencies is reported. Most people (86 per cent) reported some acute or chronic illness, injury, or disability, and 2,603 illnesses were reported. This high prevalence of symptoms and illness is not unique but is matched by results in similarly comprehensive surveys in Britain and the U.S.A. and is comparable with the results of less comprehensive surveys in Australia.
Illness resulted in an average annual work loss of 7.6 working days for adult males, an annual consultation rate of 4.1 per person, and 128 hospital admissions per 1,000 people per annum. A wide variety of health and welfare services was used, but doctors stood out as the major source of help. Although only one third of current illness reported was receiving medical care or medication prescribed by a doctor, the rate of use of medical, hospital and other health services in Traralgon was similar to or greater than that shown by other surveys in Australia and overseas. Much of the remaining illness was receiving care from other sources, including self medication, and represents a vast potential demand for medical care, although how much benefit extra care would bring is unknown.
The Influence of demographic and social factors such as age, sex, place of birth and occupation, on the prevalence of reported illness and the use of health services is demonstrated, but the results do not suggest reasons for the differences. However they add a little to the inadequate information about the social context of illness and use of health care in Australia, and provide a basis of information on which planning for the future provision for health care in Traralgon is being based.
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