Type 2 diabetes

There were around 1.1 million hospitalisations with type 2 diabetes recorded as the principal and/or additional diagnosis in 2017–18, with 35,000 (3% of type 2 diabetes hospitalisations) as the principal diagnosis and 1,032,000 (97% of type 2 diabetes hospitalisations) as an additional diagnosis. 

Age and sex

In 2017–­18, type 2 hospitalisation rates (as the principal and/or additional diagnosis):

  • were 1.4 times as high for males as females (4,300 and 3,100 per 100,000 population, respectively). Age-specific rates were higher among males than females from age 45 onwards.
  • increased with age, with the majority (87%) of type 2 diabetes hospitalisations occurring in those aged 55 and over. Type 2 diabetes hospitalisation rates were highest among those aged 85 and over (31,400 and 19,900 per 100,000 for males and females, respectively) (Figure 4).

Figure 4: Type 2 diabetes hospitalisations (principal and/or additional diagnosis), by age group and sex, 2017–18

The bar chart shows the increasing rate of type 2 diabetes hospitalisations (principal and/or additional diagnosis) by age, peaking in the 75–84 and 85+ age groups for males and females with around 30,000 hospitalisations per 100,000 population for males and 20,000 hospitalisations per 100,000 for females . The type 2 diabetes hospitalisation rate was more than 1.5 times higher for males than females in each of the age groups from 65–74 and over.

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Variations between population groups

In 2017–18, type 2 diabetes hospitalisation rates (as the principal and/or additional diagnosis) increased with remoteness and socioeconomic disadvantage. Rates were:

  • 2.5 times as high in Remote and very remote areas compared with Major cities. This gap was much larger for females than males―3.5 times as high for females (10,300 and 2,900 per 100,000 population, respectively) and 1.8 times as high for males (7,600 and 4,200 per 100,000, respectively).
  • twice as high among those living in the lowest socioeconomic areas compared with those living in the highest socioeconomic areas. This difference was higher for females than males—more than 2.4 times as high for females (4,500 and 1,900 per 100,000, respectively) and 1.8 times as high for males (5,700 and 3,100 per 100,000, respectively) (Figure 5).

Figure 5: Type 2 diabetes hospitalisations (principal and/or additional diagnosis), by remoteness and socioeconomic areas, 2017–18

The bar chart shows type 2 diabetes hospitalisations (principal and/or additional diagnosis) in 2017–18 were notably higher in Remote and very remote areas, particularly for females with a hospitalisation rate of 10,262 per 100,000 population being around 3.5 times that of other areas. The rate for males was 7,571 per 100,000 population (1.8 times higher than for males living in other areas). The chart also shows the type 2 diabetes hospitalisation rate increased with the level of socioeconomic disadvantage in 2017–18. The rate per 100,000 population increased from 3,082 to 5,676 for males and 1,943 to 4,543 for females in the least to most disadvantaged areas, respectively.

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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

In 2017–18, there were around 70,000 hospitalisations for type 2 diabetes (as the principal and/or additional diagnosis) among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, a rate of 8,500 per 100,000 population.

After adjusting for differences in the age structure of the populations:

  • the rate of type 2 diabetes hospitalisations among Indigenous Australians was 4.3 times the rate for non-Indigenous Australians.
  • the difference in rates between Indigenous Australians and non-Indigenous Australians was greater for females than males―5.6 times as high for females and 3.2 times as high for males.