About 700,000 Australians, or nearly 4% of the population, had
clinically diagnosed diabetes in 2004-05, according to a report
released today by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
(AIHW).
'But it's likely that a substantial number of cases of diabetes
go undiagnosed,' the AIHW's Lynelle Moon said.
The AIHW report, Diabetes: Australian Facts 2008,
contains the most recent national data on prevalence, incidence,
risk factors, and complications of diabetes. The report shows that
overall, between 1989 and 2005, the proportion of people with
diagnosed diabetes more than doubled, and either caused or
contributed to 1 in 11 deaths in Australia in 2005.
Some population groups, such as the least well-off and
Indigenous Australians, had significantly higher diabetes
hospitalisation and death rates than the general population. People
born in South-East Europe, North Africa and the Middle-East had
particularly high death rates from diabetes.
'The overall rise in diabetes is largely driven by an increase
in the prevalence of Type 2 diabetes; however, Type 1 diabetes and
gestational diabetes are also on the rise,' Ms Moon said.
Diabetes can lead to heart disease, kidney failure, blindness,
amputations, oral health problems and impotence.
In 2004-05 people with diabetes were twice as likely to have had
a heart attack, and four times as likely to have had a stroke.
Nearly a third of people starting treatment for end-stage kidney
disease did so because of their diabetes, and almost 3,400 people
with diabetes had lower limb amputations.
Type 2 diabetes is largely preventable through following a
healthy lifestyle to control modifiable risk factors such as
obesity and physical inactivity.
The impact of the serious complications from diabetes can also
be reduced through good health care and the control of risk
factors.
Just over half of all Australians aged 15 years and over are
overweight or obese, but over two-thirds of people with diabetes
are overweight or obese.
The report also found that diabetes and its complications were
treated in over half a million hospitalisations in 2004-05 and that
nearly 2% ($907 million) of total health expenditure in 2004-05 was
for diabetes treatment.
Friday 28 March 2008
Further information: Lynelle Moon (02 6244
1235) or Indrani-Pieris-Caldwell (02 6244 1162)
For media copies of the report: Publications
Officer, AIHW, tel. 61 2 6244 1032.
Availability: Check the AIHW Publications
Catalogue for the availability of Diabetes: Australian
Facts 2008.