BENDIGO and Maryborough have two of the highest rates of premature death in regional Victoria, new data shows.
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Maryborough sits at 97 per cent above the national average of potential years of life lost, the statistics from the Torrens University Public Health Information Development Unit show.
Central Bendigo was 90 per cent above the national average for potential years of life lost.
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PHIDU director John Glover said information about localised areas such Maryborough and Bendigo could help health networks and policy-makers target areas with high rates of potentially avoidable deaths.
He said to address inequity in Australia it was vital to have data on variations in the death rate.
"So much arises out of socioeconomic factors," Professor Glover said.
"It's not just a matter of providing good primary care... but it's also doing health promotion and education, it's also ensuring good education opportunities.
"Regional communities do have on the whole ... relatively poorer outcomes. It results [from] quite a range of factors in access to primary care, and specialist care and so on, difficulties of distance. All of those things add up."
The figures are gleaned from statistics around deaths before the age of 75, which Professor Glover said signaled potential years of life lost.
He said few people in Bendigo died before the age of 25, but the numbers rose among those aged 25 to 74.
Professor Glover said there was a relationship between the premature death rate and socioeconomic status.
He said both Maryborough and Bendigo were relatively disadvantage compared to the rest of the state, by an index that collated factors such as education, unemployment and housing.
The PHIDU data also showed Maiden Gully to be among the areas in Victoria with the lowest median age of death in regional Victoria, at 71.
But Professor Glover said this statistic could be distorted by the lack of aged care facilities in the suburb, which tended to drag the median age of death up.
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