MORE than two-and-a-half times more Swan Hill residents have diabetes now than
in 2001 — and doctors expect that number to continue to rise.
The
significant spike in the prevalence of diabetes is occurring not just the
Mallee, but across the nation.
Between 2001 and 2011 the prevalence of
diabetes rose 161.7 per cent in the Swan Hill district, and now affects a total
of about 5.6 per cent of people.
Rural Doctors Association Victoria president
and Swan Hill Medical Group physician Dr Mike Moynihan said he was seeing more
and more patients with diabetes.
He said the rise could be contributed to a
significant change in lifestyles.
“It’s steadily going up, it runs parallel
to the obesity epidemic,” he said.
“It’s going to get worse what ever we do,
the more convenient life becomes, the less we will do.”
“No doubt, for many
diabetics, if they lost their excess weight would become a non-diabetic,
[although] some will have to go on treatment if they have raised sugar
levels.”
Diabetes Australia recently released a proposed five-year National
Diabetes Strategy and Action Plan to provide the incoming Australian government
with an outline for handling the epidemic.
The report highlighted the need
for a comprehensive strategy in dealing with the disease and a focus on
prevention.
Dr Moynihan said there was a significant need for a national plan
and that the emphasis needed to be on prevention rather than treatment.
For more of this story, see Monday’s Guardian (July 8).
