Health of refugees and humanitarian entrants in Australia

Self-reported diabetes by age and sex

Humanitarian entrants had a higher self-reported rate of diabetes compared with the other permanent migrants and the rest of the Australian population.

In 2021, the age-standardised rate of self-reported diabetes was:

• 38% higher in male humanitarian entrants (7.3%) than male permanent migrants (5.3%) and 52% higher than males from the rest of the Australian population (4.8%)
• around twice as high in female humanitarian entrants (7.8%) as female permanent migrants (3.9%) and females from the rest of the Australian population (3.7%).

Diabetes is more commonly reported among males than females in the rest of the Australian population and other permanent migrant population. This is consistent with other reporting by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) (see Diabetes: Australian facts). In the humanitarian entrant population after adjusting for age, self-reported diabetes is slightly more commonly reported in females than males (Figure 4.4).

For both male and female humanitarian entrants, the diabetes was more commonly reported in the 70–79-year age group (28% and 30%, respectively). Humanitarian entrants had a higher rate of self-reported diabetes than other permanent migrants and the rest of the Australian population in the age groups above 40. (Figure 4.4)

The rate of self-reported diabetes in female humanitarian entrants aged 40–49 was 2.2 times the rate of females from the rest of the Australian population.

Figure 4.4: Rate of self-reported diabetes by age, sex and population group, 2021

High rates of self-reported diabetes in humanitarian entrants could relate to known differences in diabetes prevalence by socioeconomic area or ethnicity, or due to the potentially high prevalence of risk factors in this population such as high blood pressure, inadequate fruit and vegetable intake and kidney disease (Abouzeid et al. 2013; AIHW 2023). Further data are needed to identify drivers of diabetes rates in this population.

Self-reported diabetes by country of birth

For most countries of birth, diabetes was more commonly reported by humanitarian entrants than other permanent migrants born in the same country. However, permanent migrants born in Myanmar, Egypt, Lebanon, Pakistan, India, Kenya and Thailand had a higher rate of self-reported diabetes than humanitarian entrants born in the same countries.

More than 1 in 8 (13.5%) humanitarian entrants born in Bhutan self-reported to be living with diabetes in 2021– around 22.5 times as high as other permanent migrants born in Bhutan (0.6%). The difference in self-reported diabetes rates among the population groups may be due to the ethnic differences between these groups or the different experiences prior to or after arrival in Australia (see Box 4.3). 

Additional details including number of people reporting diabetes and population sizes by country of birth is available in the supplementary data table S3.3. For more information about reporting by country of birth see Data sources and methods.

Notes: 

1. Rate of self-reported diabetes is the number of humanitarian entrants reporting having diabetes in the Census 2021 divided by the total number of humanitarian entrants who responded to the long-term health condition question. The rate has not been adjusted for age.
2. Data were not presented and marked as ‘n.p.’ (not published) when suppression was applied to manage confidentiality and when the number of events was not sufficient to produce reliable estimates. For more information on how these data were calculated, see the Technical notes.

Source: AIHW analysis of PLIDA, 2021.