How much is poor health costing you?

The good news for Australians is that we are in the top six for men in life expectancy and the top seven for woman in the world. These days the life expectancy for men is 79.9 and for women is it 84.

The bad news is that in 2014 in Australia over 3 in 5 adults (63%) are overweight or obese. Nearly 3 in 5 (57%) do not exercise enough for good health and in 2011-12 only 8% of adults were eating enough vegetables and 49% were eating enough fruit for optimum nutrition. (1)

Long term health conditions relating to our poor health are diabetes, high blood pressure and arthritis.

In Australia 1.7 million people have diabetes of which 85% are type 2 diabetics. 280 Australians develop diabetes every day (that’s one person every 5 minutes) with over 100,000 having developed this disease in the last year.

For every person diagnosed with diabetes there is usually a family member or carer involved. This means that 2.4 million people are affected by diabetes every day. (2)

The estimated cost impact per annum for type 2 diabetes is up to $6 billion including healthcare costs, the cost or carers and subsidies. This equates to an approximate cost per person per year of between $4,025 and $9,645. (3)

Type 2 diabetes is predominantly caused by obesity that can be avoided by weight control. Weight can be controlled by diet and exercise so the message is clear people -