26 Jan 1 in 3 young Aussies will get diabetes: researchers

One in three of today’s young Australians will go on to develop diabetes, according to new figures.

A new assessment of national health data released by Diabetes Australia today shows 1.5 million Australians currently have diabetes.

It says the diabetes rate is likely to at least double in Australia over the next decade, and predicts 3 million people will have type 2 diabetes by 2025.

The head of Diabetes Australia, Lewis Kaplan, has called for a national action plan to be developed to help control what is a potentially preventable disease.

“If nothing is done, the likelihood is that the numbers will continue to grow to 3.5 million by 2033,” he said.

“If we do something about the situation, we might reduce that growth down to only maybe 2 million additional cases by 2033.”

He says there needs to be better diagnoses and treatment of people with the chronic condition.

“So that they can prevent or delay complications,” he said.

“Complications are serious – people go blind from diabetes, they have a large number of limb amputations, they’re likely to get end-stage kidney disease, heart disease, stroke and death.”

Source: ABC News