Proportion of people by medication types and age 2022

This data visualisation shows the proportion of people by the number of Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) medication types they used in 2022 across different age groups. The colours represent the number of medication types used: blue indicates no medications, orange represents 1–4 medication types, pink represents 5–9 medication types, and purple represents 10 or more medication types. By comparing these colour categories across the age groups, the visualisation illustrates how medication use varies with age, and between different states of Australia. 

 Adults aged 18 years and over were dispensed with more types of medication on average than children. People aged 75 years and over had the highest average number of medications dispensed at 8.0 different medication types.

Two in ten (21.4%) people were dispensed with multiple medications, this increased with age to seven in ten (71.5%) for people aged 75 years and over. Three in ten (32.6%) people aged 75 years and over were dispensed with ten or more medication types, this was higher than any other age group. 

 

Medications, 2022 | Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2024). In www.abs.gov.au. https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/health/health-conditions-and-risks/medications/2022

Analysis of Graph 

  • The use of different colours of this data visualisation, is a pre-attentive feature. This grabbed my attention first, as the graph colours clearly seperate the different categories (number of medications) 
  • The gestalt law of similarity is evident in this graph, as each medication is represented by the same colour across all age groups. Blue represents, no medication, red is 5-9 medications, orange is 1-4 medications, and pink is 10 or more medications. This makes it easy for viewers to read and group categories together.  
  • The quantitative variable, the average number of medication types, is displayed on a line graph with a scale ranging from 0 to 10. The graph shows a clear increasing trend, indicating that the average number of medication types taken increases with age. The use of a line graph effectively highlights this trend, making it easy to compare changes across age groups and accurately interpret the relationship between age and medication use.