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Life expectancy for females has exceeded that of males globally this century. There is considerable within-country variation in life expectancy related to education. Sex gaps in life expectancy can be decomposed into two components: sex differences in education-specific mortality and sex differences in educational composition. We illustrate this using Australian data for 2016, when the sex gap in life expectancy at age 25 was 3.8 years. The sex gap would be as large as 4.5 years if males and females had the same educational composition; however, it is reduced by 0.7 years, given the lower levels of education among women than men. In a hypothetical scenario accounting for recent increases in females' educational achievement (holding the educational composition at all ages constant at that observed at ages 25–39 for both sexes), we estimate a potential increase in the sex gap (to 4.1 years) in favour of females. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To estimate the prevalence of long COVID among Western Australian adults, a highly vaccinated population whose first major exposure to the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) was during the 2022 Omicron wave, and to assess its impact on health service use and return to work or study. Study design: Follow‐up survey (completed online or by telephone). Setting, participants: Adult Western Australians surveyed 90 days after positive SARS‐CoV‐2 test results (polymerase chain reaction or rapid antigen testing) during 16 July – 3 August 2022 who had consented to follow‐up contact for research purposes. Main outcome measures: Proportion of respondents with long COVID (ie, reporting new or ongoing symptoms or health problems, 90 days after positive SARS‐CoV‐2 test result); proportion with long COVID who sought health care for long COVID‐related symptoms two to three months after infection; proportion who reported not fully returning to previous work or study because of long COVID‐related symptoms. Results: Of the 70 876 adults with reported SARS‐CoV‐2 infections, 24 024 consented to contact (33.9%); after exclusions, 22 744 people were invited to complete the survey, of whom 11 697 (51.4%) provided complete responses. Our case definition for long COVID was satisfied by 2130 respondents (18.2%). The risk of long COVID was greater for women (v men: adjusted risk ratio [aRR], 1.5; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.4–1.6) and for people aged 50–69 years (v 18–29 years: aRR, 1.6; 95% CI, 1.4–1.9) or with pre‐existing health conditions (aRR, 1.5; 95% CI, 1.4–1.7), as well as for people who had received two or fewer COVID–19 vaccine doses (v four or more: aRR, 1.4; 95% CI, 1.2–1.8) or three doses (aRR, 1.3; 95% CI, 1.1–1.5). The symptoms most frequently reported by people with long COVID were fatigue (1504, 70.6%) and concentration difficulties (1267, 59.5%). In the month preceding the survey, 814 people had consulted general practitioners (38.2%) and 34 reported being hospitalised (1.6%) with long COVID. Of 1779 respondents with long COVID who had worked or studied before the infection, 318 reported reducing or discontinuing this activity (17.8%). Conclusion: Ninety days after infection with the Omicron SARS‐CoV‐2 variant, 18.2% of survey respondents reported symptoms consistent with long COVID, of whom 38.7% (7.1% of all survey respondents) sought health care for related health concerns two to three months after the acute infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, general practice in Australia underwent a rapid transition, including the roll-out of population-wide telehealth, with uncertain impacts on GP use and costs. Aim: To describe how use and costs of GP services changed in 2020 — following the COVID-19 pandemic and introduction of telehealth — compared with 2019, and how this varied across population subgroups. Design and setting: Linked-data analysis of whole-population data for Australia. Method: Multi-Agency Data Integration Project data for ∼19 million individuals from the 2016 census were linked to Medicare data for 2019–2020. Regression models were used to compare age- and sex-adjusted GP use and out-of-pocket costs over time, overall, and by sociodemographic characteristics. Results: Of the population, 85.5% visited a GP in Q2–Q4 2020, compared with 89.5% in the same period of 2019. The mean number of face-to-face GP services per quarter declined, while telehealth services increased; overall use of GP services in Q4 2020 was similar to, or higher than, that of Q4 2019 for most groups. The proportion of total GP services by telehealth stabilised at 23.5% in Q4 2020. However, individuals aged 3–14 years, ≥70 years, and those with limited English proficiency used fewer GP services in 2020 compared with 2019, with a lower proportion by telehealth, compared with the rest of the population. Mean out-of-pocket costs per service were lower across all subgroups in 2020 compared with 2019. Conclusion: The introduction of widespread telehealth maintained the use of GP services during the COVID-19 pandemic and minimised out-of-pocket costs, but not for all population subgroups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]