Cost of diabetes to quadruple by 2051
March 16, 2006A new study has found the financial burden of treating diabetes for Australians will dramatically escalate unless more is done to prevent type 2 diabetes.
The study by Dr Wendy Davis and colleagues from the University of Western Australia is in the March edition of the Internal Medicine Journal (IMJ), the official journal of the Adult Medicine Division of The Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP).
The study of almost 1,300 type 2 diabetics predicts that annual health care costs directly attributable to type 2 diabetes will increase to $2.4 billion by the year 2051.
“The number of people with type 2 diabetes could more than triple between 2000 and 2051 and this means a 4-fold increase in direct diabetes-attributable health care costs,” Dr Davis said.
Dr Davis said the prevention of “diabesity” needs to be a major priority, noting that reduction in life expectancy associated with diabetes is approximately 13 years, compared with 10 years for smokers.
A summary (57Kb Word doc) of the study is available through the IMJ website.
Diabetes series available free
The Rural Health Education Foundation has produced three programs on diabetes, and the complete series is now available for free on DVD and VHS video.
The three diabetes programs are:
- Type 1 Diabetes (program 510, 13 September 2005)
- Taking Action to Prevent Diabetes (program 317, 18 November 2003)
- Diabetes: Identifying and Treating the Complications (program 304, 18 March 2003)