Diabetes Facts

• 1.5 million Australians have diabetes and half don’t know it (they have undiagnosed type 2 diabetes)
• An estimated 275 Australians develop diabetes every day
• An estimated two million Australians have pre-diabetes and are at risk of developing type 2 diabetes
• Type 2 diabetes continues to be the fastest growing chronic disease in Australia
• The cost of diabetes to the Australian healthcare system is estimated at least $3 billion
• Diabetes is the sixth leading cause of death in Australia
• Complications of diabetes include:
  - heart attacks and strokes: up to four times more likely in people with diabetes
  - blindness: retinopathy affects one in six people with diabetes
  - kidney damage: three times more common in people with diabetes
  - amputations: 15 times more common in people with diabetes

Obesity information for adults and children  

• It is estimated (in 2001) that almost 60 per cent of the adult population in Australia over 25 years of age (67.5 per cent of men and 52.1 per cent of women) is overweight or obese
• the prevalence of obesity in Australia has more than doubled in the past twenty years
• The International Obesity Task Force estimates that based on current trends, by 2010, 70 per cent of Australian adults will be above the ideal weight and by about 2025, one in every three Australian adults will be obese
• In Victoria (in 2005) it was estimated that 54.2 per cent of males and 41.9 per cent of females (47.9 per cent of adults) over the age of 18 years were overweight or obese
• Find out more about world wide data
• Find out more about Victorian data
• It is estimated (Norton et al 2006) that about 25 per cent of Australian children (age 5 to 15 years) are overweight or obese, and that within thirty years, prevalence in children will rise to similar levels to the current prevalence (60 per cent) in adults.