Australia's asthma hotspots have been revealed in a new UNSW Sydney-led study, which found higher proportions of childhood asthma in areas with greater disadvantage and a higher Indigenous population.
Asthma is more common among children in regional Australia, occurring at more than double the national average in some communities, new research shows.
The nation's asthma hotspots are largely found in regional and rural communities with greater socioeconomic disadvantage and higher proportions of Indigenous Australians, the study led by UNSW Sydney shows.
The study, published in Global Health Research and Policy, found hundreds of childhood asthma hotspots across the country, the bulk of which were in regional or remote areas of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, and Tasmania.
Lead author Dr Jahid Khan, from UNSW's School of Clinical Medicine, said a link between asthma and social deprivation had been expected, as with many chronic conditions, but that the scale of the difference across communities was greater than anticipated.
"We suspected there would be an elevated proportion of children with asthma in areas of greater deprivation, but to see such a difference within one country and so many areas of hotspots, it surprised us," Dr Khan said.
"This highlights to policymakers the areas where more resources and more targeted intervention are needed, to reduce the burden of asthma among children, as well as the associated hospital costs and health expenditure."
Australia's childhood asthma hotspots
UNSW researchers collaborated with asthma experts from across the country including the Sydney Children's Hospitals Network, Murdoch Children's Research Institute and The Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne.
They analysed asthma prevalence in children and teenagers, up to age 14, and sociodemographic features, in 2321 communities, using Statistical Areas Level 2 (SA2) data from the 2021 Census - the first to collect information on diagnosed long-term health conditions.
Of those, 465 or 20%, were part of an asthma hotspot. An area was deemed a hotspot when there was a cluster of communities with an above average prevalence of childhood asthma.
