Rates directly age-standardised to the 2001 Australian population.

Count (a) number of deaths where ‘acute coronary heart disease’ (ICD-10 codes I20–I24) is the underlying cause of death in each calendar year (based on year of registration of death).

Count (b) number of non-fatal hospitalisations where ‘acute myocardial infarction’ (ICD-10-AM I21) or ‘unstable angina’ (ICD-10-AM I20.0) are the principal diagnosis, and separation mode is not equal to ‘died’ or ‘transferred to another acute hospital’, and care type is not equal to ‘new born-unqualified days only’ or ‘organ procurement – posthumous’ or ‘hospital boarder’ in each calendar year (based on discharge date from hospital).

The number of acute coronary events is estimated by (a) + (b).

2007, 2008 (resupplied for updated Estimated Resident Population (ERP)), 2009, 2010 (resupplied for updated ERP and revisions to the National Mortality Database (NMD)), 2011 — Nationally, by:

• age group and sex

2007, 2008 (resupplied for refinement of age-standardisation methodology), 2009, 2010 (resupplied for refinement of age-standardisation methodology and revisions to the NMD), 2011—Nationally, by:

• Indigenous status (for states and territories with adequate identification in hospital and deaths data)

Most recent data available for 2014 Council of Australian Governments (COAG) Reform Council (CRC) report: 2011.

This is a measure of the number of acute coronary events in a year. An individual may have more than one event during a year.

This indicator has previously been published at the national level by age and sex. Assessment of appropriateness to disaggregate below this level will be undertaken prior to reporting.

The computation method has recently been revised and should be considered 'preliminary' until work on validation is complete. The computation method for age-standardisation of data reported by Indigenous status has been refined since the previous cycle.

Note that updated ERP by Indigenous status is not available for this cycle. Data by Indigenous status is calculated using ERP determined prior to the final rebased ERP provided after the 2011 Census. It is expected that final rebased ERP by Indigenous status will be available for the next cycle of reporting.

Specification: Substantial work required, the measure requires significant work to be undertaken to validate both nationally and for disaggregation by jurisdiction.

The method has been recently reviewed and is preliminary, until validation work is complete. Any further improvements in diagnostic sensitivity and treatment patterns for acute coronary events will need to be taken into account in trend analysis.