What is the burden of chronic disease?
Australia, like most of the rest of the world, is facing an epidemic of chronic disease. Factors such as smoking, harmful alcohol use, poor nutrition and physical inactivity are causing a massive increase in chronic diseases including cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, cancer and diabetes.
These chronic diseases are not only the leading cause of premature death in this country, they restrict how millions of Australians live every day.
Chronic diseases are the leading causes of death
This means that although Australians are living longer, we are living more years in ill health – largely due to preventable chronic disease.
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The cost of chronic diseases to the community is considerable and growing. Treatment of chronic diseases now consumes more than a third of health spending and has the potential to overwhelm the health budget and our health services.
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According to the Global Burden of Disease study, over a third (38%) of Australia’s disease burden could be avoided or reduced if we took action on a range of risk factors including tobacco use, obesity, dietary risks, high blood pressure and alcohol use.
More about prevention
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What is prevention?
Prevention is any action taken to protect and promote the health of populations. Prevention aims to prevent poor health, illness, injury and early death from occurring.
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How can I make the case for prevention?
Small changes in the prevalence of the risk factors for chronic disease are likely to lead to a significant reduction in the health burden.
