Diabetes Awareness Week begins... News... Diabetes Australia

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04 March 2010

A message from the CEO of Diabetes Australia-NSW on Australian Government Health Reforms

The Australian Government yesterday announced major reforms to Australia’s health and hospital system.

26 February 2010

Diabetes increases dementia risk in older people

British researchers have found that older people with mild cognitive impairment are three times more likely to develop dementia if they have diabetes.

09 March 2010

Combined diet and exercise the key to improving insulin resistance

Combining diet and exercise rather than diet and exercise alone leads to significantly greater improvements in body fat distribution and insulin resistance, according to the findings of a new study.

04 March 2010

Salt intake linked with stroke, heart disease risk

A new Italian study suggests that by lowering our salt intake we could substantially reduce the amount of deaths from heart disease and stroke worldwide.

Diabetes Awareness Week begins

13 July 2008

Diabetes Australia launches its major Diabetes Awareness Week campaign today, with the message of urging all Australians to be aware of their family history of type 2 diabetes.

The campaign follows a national family history awareness survey that found that 97 per cent of people who have diabetes in their family, do not believe their children are very much at risk of developing the disease.

The survey, also released today by Diabetes Australia, revealed there was widespread lack of awareness among all Australians about the risks to family members if someone in the family has type 2 diabetes.

While 75 per cent of Australians understand that obesity and overweight are risk factors for type 2 diabetes, only 25 per cent link family history with the disease.

It is for this reason that Diabetes Australia is focussing on family history of the disease as its theme for Diabetes Awareness Week 13-19 July, with the slogan ‘type 2 diabetes runs in families’.

It is estimated that people who have both parents with type 2 diabetes have a one in two chance of developing it.

“We expected that the community in general might be unaware of the link between family history and diabetes but quite frankly, it was a surprise to find out that most of those people who had diabetes in the family did not think their children would be at risk,” said Dr Neville Howard, President of Diabetes Australia-NSW.

“We need to alert people to realise that family history also means a future risk for children whose parents or grandparents have type 2 diabetes.”

Dr Howard says people can’t change their history but the risk of developing type 2 diabetes can be reduced if everyone in the family adopts a healthy lifestyle, of increased physical activity and eating healthily.

The survey, conducted by Jones Donald Strategy Partners, found more than half of the people questioned had diabetes in their family, mainly their parents, yet only one in 14 people considered themselves very much at risk of the disease.

Only one in five people surveyed said they would be prepared to do anything to reduce their risk of developing type 2 diabetes. If they do plan to take action in the next six months, they say they will exercise regularly and change their diet.

The Fletcher family

Gina Fletcher of Sydney never thought her 13-year-old son, Thomas, was at risk of type 2 diabetes before he developed it last year.

Gina and her husband Maurice do not have type 2 diabetes. But Maurice’s mother and four of her brothers and sisters had type 2 diabetes and developed complications.

“I didn’t even think to check whether Thomas had a family history of type 2 diabetes,” Gina says.

The mother of two is making sure Thomas leads a healthy active lifestyle and she’s now also aware of the risk to her other son, 11-year-old Nicholas.

“To make sure Thomas has good diabetes management to reduce his risk of complications, he has lost a little weight through daily exercise and playing in the rugby union team at school,” Gina says.

Dr Howard says people should discuss their family history with their General Practitioner.

Maintaining a healthy weight, by being physically active and eating healthily can reduce a person’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes by up to 60 per cent.

Diabetes is at epidemic proportions with one Australian being diagnosed every seven minutes. Diabetes Australia-NSW has released the latest Australian diabetes numbers which shows about 900,000 Australians have been diagnosed with all forms of the disease, a 120 per cent increase since 2000.

In New South Wales, 321,000 people have been diagnosed with diabetes in 2008, a 100 per cent increase since 2000.