The National Diabetes Register (NDR) has uncovered some
unexpected findings about people diagnosed with insulin-treated
diabetes each year, according to a report released today by the
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
Insulin-treated diabetes includes all Type 1 diabetes and people
with Type 2, gestational, and other types of diabetes which are
treated with insulin.
The AIHW's first report on the NDR, National Diabetes
Register: Statistical Profile, shows that among children aged
less than 15 years there were 743 new cases of insulin-treated
diabetes in 2000 (19 cases per 100,000 population). People of this
age predominantly have Type 1 diabetes.
Report author Phil Trickett said that the rate of 19 cases per
100,000 population was 'much higher than previous estimates while
in line with other studies reporting a rising incidence of diabetes
in Australia'.
There are higher death rates among people with diabetes. The
death rate for NDR registrants was three-and-a-half times that of
the general Australian population.
Almost all the people who had died since joining the Register
were aged 50 years or more, and suffered from Type 2 diabetes.
The Register - established to help combat diabetes as a major
health concern for Australians - is part of the National Diabetes
Strategy and is funded by the Commonwealth Department of Health and
Aged Care. It collects information about people with
insulin-treated diabetes, and those who started to use insulin from
1 January 1999 onwards.
Mr Trickett said that information from the Register would now be
available to researchers in the field.
'It's expected that analysis of this higher death rate among
people with insulin-treated diabetes will be one of the priorities
for researchers,' Mr Trickett said. 'Subject to ethical
availability, approaches from researchers to use the Register are
welcome.'
There were an estimated 20,000 new cases of insulin-treated
diabetes over 1999 and 2000. The report shows that just under 70%
of these people, or almost 13,350 Australians, were registered with
the NDR over this two-year period.
Other findings from National Diabetes Register: Statistical
Profile, include:
- For people aged 25 years and under, both males and females were
equally likely to have insulin-treated diabetes. Women, however,
strongly outnumbered men in the 25-44 years age group-reflecting
the effect of gestational diabetes in women from this age group.
For older groups (45-74 years) there were 37% more male registrants
than females.
- The average age at diagnosis was 14.5 years for registrants
with Type 1 diabetes, 32 years for women with gestational diabetes,
and about 53 years for people diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes.
5 October 2001
Further information: Mr Phil Trickett, AIHW,
tel. 02. 6244 1097 or
tel. 0409 307 671
For media copies of the report: Publications
Officer, AIHW, tel. 02 244 1032
Availability: Check the AIHW Publications
Catalogue for availability.