The overall health of Australians continues to improve, yet some people still smoke, eat and drink far too much, and have high blood pressure – and geography appears to play a strong part.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) has released new geographical data, showing where Australia’s most common chronic diseases are more prevalent.
For example, more than 1.1 million Australian adults (registered with the National Diabetes Services Scheme) had Type 2 diabetes in 2018, which is 5.9 per cent of the adult population. The proportion of adults with Type 2 diabetes ranged from 4.5 per cent in the Australian Capital Territory to 7.4 per cent in the Northern Territory.
Conversely, from 2017-18, 6.2 per cent of Australian adults had self-reported heart, stroke and vascular disease (HSVD), about 1.2 million people. The proportion of adults with self-reported HSVD ranged from 2.9 per cent in the Northern Territory to 7.7 per cent in Tasmania.
“People living in the highest socioeconomic areas lived more years in full health, without disease or injury, compared to those in the lowest socioeconomic group,” said AIHW spokesperson Richard Juckes.
“Additionally, those living in remote and very remote areas experience 40 per cent higher burden compared to those in major cities.”
In 2018, Australians lost five million years of healthy life due to living with or dying prematurely from disease and injury. Non-fatal burden accounted for 52 per cent of total burden, and fatal burden accounted for 48 per cent. Mr Juckes said around 1.9 million years of these healthy lives lost were potentially preventable.
The five disease groups that caused the most burden were:
- cancer (18 per cent);
- musculoskeletal conditions (13 per cent);
- cardiovascular diseases (13 per cent);
- mental and substance use disorders (13 per cent); and
- injuries (8.4 per cent).
Tobacco use was the leading risk factor for both men and women and contributed the most to fatal burden, with almost 20,500 deaths (13 per cent of all deaths) in 2018. Overweight (including obesity) was the highest contributor to non-fatal burden.
However, due to the drop in smoking and associated diseases, the gap in total disease burden due to tobacco use and overweight (including obesity) has been narrowing over time.
The message: time to cut back on all those poor habits that could one day lead to serious illness.
