The use of spatial relationships and maps is a powerful tool for understanding health and health care services issues, and enables immediate visualisation of solutions. The use of geographical information systems (GIS) in primary health care research and policy has been gaining momentum in Australia and internationally. The Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute (APHCRI) and the Robert Graham Center, a US primary care policy research body, developed an Australian health mapping tool as part of a collaborative fellowship. The tool is a web-based GIS software program specifically designed to address primary health care issues.
The map above displays a range of data relating to measures of health outcomes, sociodemographics, administrative boundaries and places of interest. Check a circle or box for each of the data layers, policy relevant areas and points of interest to display the relevant information. Any area can be zoomed into to get closer details. By clicking the export button, it allows you to create a jpeg file of a map of any area and data layer from the options available.
Clicking on the data button (top left-hand side of map) will allow you see the actual values for each statistical local area(SLA).
Using the Australian health mapping tool, an initial exploration was undertaken to examine the relationship between remoteness, the index of relative disadvantage (as a measure of social deprivation) and workforce supply.
Each polygon displayed represents a statistical local area (SLAs), the second smallest unit of area used by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). These areas roughly add to be postcode, suburbs, local government areas, general practice networks, states and territories.
total health workforce by headcount per 10,000 population (includes nurses, medical workforce, pharmacists, psychologists, Aboriginal health workers, dentists)
medical workforce by headcount per 10,000 population
nurses by headcount per 10,000 population
Index of Relative Disadvantage: measure of socioeconomic disadvantage for each SLA as a decile (ranges from the most disadvantaged (1st-2nd decile) to the least disadvantaged (9th-10th decile)
Avoidable Standard Death Rate: Standardised rate of death that could have been avoided by preventative and primary health care for each SLA
population at risk: Percentage of population in each SLA experiencing one of four risk behaviours (smoking, obesity, physical inactivity or harmful consumption of alcohol)
risk standard rate: Standardised rate of one of four risk factors within each SLA (see above for risk behaviours)
diabetes standard rate: Number of people who reported they have diabetes per 1000 population in each SLA, standardised indirectly to age
Indigenous Population: Percentage of population in each SLA who is of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent.
The composite score of deprivation combines measures of remoteness areas, physician to population ratios and the Index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage (IRSD), which has been shown to be predictive of health outcome measures (such as avoidable mortality per 100,000, risk behaviour rate per 1000 and diabetes rate per 1000). These scores range from 3 to 15, with 15 reflecting the most deprived SLAs and 3 representing the least deprived SLAs. Notice that in the northwest of Ballarat, “Pyrenees (S) – North” has a relatively high Composite Score of 12.
"Rural Health Areas - Australian Standardised Geographical Classification of remoteness areas:
Major Cities: Right diagonal lines
Inner Regional: Speckled
Outer Regional: horizontal lines
Remote:Left diagonal lines
Very Remote:Vertical lines.
General Practice (GP) Networks are the geographical administrative boundaries that manage, support, and coordinate a collective of GP practices. Turn on this layer by clicking on the check box for the “General Practice Network.”
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