LIVING with overweight or obesity has overtaken tobacco smoking as the leading risk factor contributing to disease burden in 2024, according to a new report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
The burden of disease study estimates years of health life lost because of injury, illness or premature death, and considers over 200 diseases and injuries.
It also provides estimates of how much of this disease burden can be attributed to 20 individual risk factors such as alcohol use, physical inactivity, poor diet, overweight or obesity, and tobacco smoking.
Tobacco smoking has long been the leading risk factor in burden of disease, linked with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and lung cancer.
However, a drop in smoking prevalence has seen obesity and overweight emerge as the leading risk factors contributing to disease burden, accounting for 8.3% of total disease burden versus 7.6% for tobacco smoking.
"Australians lost an estimated 5.8 million years of healthy life due to living with disease and dying prematurely in 2024," said AIHW spokesperson Michelle Gourley.
"Over one-third of the total burden of disease and injury in Australia in 2024 could have been avoided or reduced due to modifiable risk factors included in the study," she said.
When looking at rates of total disease burden, there was a 10% decrease between 2003 and 2024, after adjusting for population ageing, driven by a 26% decrease in the rate of fatal burden.
However, the non-fatal burden rate increased by 7%.
"While Australians are living longer on average, years lived in ill health are also growing, resulting in little change in the proportion of life spent in full health," said Gourley, explaining that it contributes to the growing demand and pressures on the health system and services.
As with previous years, cancer was the leading group of diseases causing burden, accounting for over 91% of fatal burden and almost 9% of non-fatal burden.
The leading specific causes of disease burden were coronary heart disease (5.5%), dementia (4.5%), back pain and problems (4.3%), anxiety disorders (3.9%) and COPD (3.7%).
Coronary heart disease was the leading cause of burden among males, and dementia was the leading cause among females.
Burden of disease information provides an important evidence base to inform health policy and service planning.
The full report is HERE. KB
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