Health statistics that should shock Australians

One key health statistic that still stands out for me, is that one in two Australians have a lifestyle chronic condition and the data suggests that it’s only getting worse.

Even without COVID-19 we’re living in a time where there’s an increasing lack of physical, nutritional and mental well-being, which is leading to a rise in the number of people experiencing a chronic condition.

On any given day in our health system $467 million is spent on health ($19 per person), with more than $10 billion spent on mental health annually. In Australia 11.4 million people, almost 50 per cent, now have a lifestyle-related chronic condition.

Nearly one in four (23%) Australians are estimated to have two or more of these conditions. The most concerning is the stats on health of people from disadvantaged groups.

The data tells us that, generally, the higher a person’s socioeconomic position, the better their health. Compared with people in the highest socioeconomic group, people in the lowest group are:

• 2.1 times as likely to die of potentially avoidable causes

• 2.6 times as likely to have diabetes

• Two-thirds of all Australian suicides are socioeconomically narrated.

The system is broken! We can’t continue to do the same things as we have already done, it simply isn’t working, with health inequality widening.