Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Disease on the march

More Australians are being admitted to hospital for diabetes, statistics show.

Hospital admissions rose by up to 20 per cent between 2000-01 and 2003-04, an Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report reveals.
Data for 2003-04 shows more than 473,000 Australians with either type 1 or type 2 diabetes were admitted to hospital.

Of those, 86 per cent were admitted for conditions associated with diabetes, such as strokes.

More than a million Australians have diabetes.

Most have type 2 or lifestyle diabetes caused by poor nutrition and lack of exercise, the report, Diabetes Hospitalisations in Australia 2003-04(PDF), says.

Doctors have blamed the nation's obesity crisis for the worsening problem.

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