WORLD DIABETES DAY – 14th NOV 2018
WHAT IS DIABETES?
Diabetes is a serious complex condition which can affect the entire body. Diabetes requires daily self care and if complications develop, diabetes can have a significant impact on quality of life and can reduce life expectancy. While there is currently no cure for diabetes, you can live an enjoyable life by learning about the condition and effectively managing it.
There are different types of diabetes; all types are complex and serious. The three main types of diabetes are type 1, type 2 and gestational diabetes. Diabetes is the fastest growing chronic condition in Australia; increasing at a faster rate than other chronic diseases such as heart disease and cancer. All types of diabetes are increasing in prevalence:
- Type 1 diabetes accounts for 10% of all diabetes and is increasing
- Type 2 diabetes accounts for 85% of all diabetes and is increasing
- Gestational diabetes in pregnancy is increasing
FACTS!
280 Australians develop diabetes every day. That’s one person every five minutes.
Around 1.7 million Australians have diabetes. This includes all types of diagnosed diabetes (1.2 million known and registered) as well as silent, undiagnosed type 2 diabetes (up to 500,000 estimated).
More than 100,000 Australians have developed diabetes in the past year.
For every person diagnosed with diabetes there is usually a family member or carer who also ‘lives with diabetes’ every day in a support role. This means that an estimated 2.4 million Australians are affected by diabetes every day.
Total annual cost impact of diabetes in Australia estimated at $14.6 billion.
SYMPTOMS!
In type 1 diabetes, symptoms are often sudden and can be life-threatening; therefore it is usually diagnosed quite quickly. In type 2 diabetes, many people have no symptoms at all, while other signs can go unnoticed being seen as part of ‘getting older’.
Therefore, by the time symptoms are noticed, complications of diabetes may already be present.
Common symptoms include:
– Being more thirsty than usual
– Passing more urine
– Feeling tired and lethargic
– Always feeling hungry
– Having cuts that heal slowly
– Itching, skin infections
– Blurred vision
– Unexplained weight loss (type 1)
– Gradually putting on weight (type 2)
– Mood swings
– Headaches
– Feeling dizzy
– Leg cramps
DIABETES COMPLICATIONS!
Blindness
- Diabetes is the leading cause of preventable blindness in Australia.
- Between 25% and 35% of Australians report some form of diabetic retinopathy.
- Diabetic macula edema occurs in over 15 per cent of Australians with diabetes.
- The total indirect cost of vision loss associated with diabetic macular oedema in Australia is estimated to be $2.07 billion per annum. This is more than $28,000 per person with diabetic macular oedema.
Amputations
- There are more than 4,400 amputations every year in Australia as a result of diabetes.
- In 2005, more than 1000 people with diabetes died as a direct result of foot ulcers and lower limb wounds – around 8% of all diabetes related deaths.
- Every year there are 10,000 hospital admissions in Australia for diabetes-related foot ulcers in Australia – many of this end with people having a limb, or part of a limb, amputated.
- Experts estimate diabetic foot disease costs Australia around $875 million every single year.
- Recent new research suggests investing in evidence-based care for Australians with diabetic foot ulcers could save around $2.7 billion over five years. That is around $9,000 per person aged under 75 and $12,000 per person aged over 75 (both over five years).
Heart disease
- People with diabetes are between two and four times more likely to develop heart disease.
- Heart disease is the number one cause of death for people with type 2 diabetes. It contributes to almost two-thirds of all deaths in people with diabetes.
- Between one and three per cent of people with type 2 diabetes experience a heart attack every year. That means that in a given year between 11,000 and 33,000 Australians will suffer a diabetes-related heart attack.
- Almost two thirds of Australian adults with type 2 diabetes self-report some form of cardiovascular disease.
- People with diabetes may develop heart disease 10 to 15 years earlier than people without diabetes.
- Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in Australia. It kills one Australian every 12 minutes.
TAKE THE SIMPLE DIABETES RISK TEST AND SPEAK TO YOUR DR ABOUT YOUR RISK OF DEVELOPING DIABETES.