Notes on the data: Premature mortality by selected cause - 0 to 74 years

Deaths from diabetes, persons aged 0 to 74 years, 2017 to 2021

Policy context: Diabetes is a serious complex condition which can affect the entire body. Diabetes requires daily self-care and, if complications develop, can have a significant impact on quality of life and can reduce life expectancy. The three main types of diabetes are type 1, type 2 and gestational diabetes: type 2 diabetes, the most common of all cases of diabetes, is one of the major consequences of the obesity epidemic. The combination of massive changes to diet and the food supply, combined with massive changes to physical activity, with more sedentary work and less activity, means most populations are seeing more type 2 diabetes [1].

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and others who are socioeconomically disadvantaged are at higher risk of developing diabetes mellitus and have much greater hospitalisation and death rates from diabetes than other Australians [2] Between 1997 to 2000 and 2016 to 2020, the premature mortality rate from diabetes-related causes declined in the Major Cities, Remote and Very Remote areas, but increased in the Inner Regional and Outer Regional remoteness classes. However, the rate in the Very Remote areas remained very high, at 6.3 times that in Major Cities. Over this same period, the premature rate from diabetes in the Most disadvantaged areas (when compared with the Least disadvantaged areas) increased from just over double (2.02 times) to just over four times (4.14 times) [3].

The data show that, for 2017 to 2021, almost one third (32.1%) of deaths from diabetes were premature – these and other details are available here.

References

Diabetes Australia, 2018, What is diabetes?, Available from: https://www.diabetesaustralia.com.au/what-is-diabetes/; Accessed 4 March 2019.
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). Multiple causes of death. (AIHW Cat. no. AUS 159). Canberra: AIHW; 2012.
PHIDU (www.phidu.torrens.edu.au), based on Cause of Death Unit Record Files supplied by the Australian Coordinating Registry and the Victorian Department of Justice, on behalf of the Registries of Births, Deaths and Marriages and the National Coronial Information System; 2016 to 2020

Notes: International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 10th Revision (ICD-10) codes: E10-E14

For detailed data files released since 2007, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has applied a staged approach to the coding of cause of death which affects the number of records available for release at any date. In general, the latest year’s data are designated preliminary, the second latest as revised and the data for the remaining years as final. For further information about the ABS revisions process see the following and related sites: http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/3303.0Explanatory+Notes12012.

Data published here are from the following releases: 2017, final; 2018, revised; and 2019, 2020, and 2021 preliminary.

Geography: Data available by Population Health Area, Local Government Area, Primary Health Network, Quintile of socioeconomic disadvantage of area and Quintiles within PHNs, and Remoteness Area

Numerator: Deaths from diabetes at ages 0 to 74 years

Denominator: Population aged 0 to 74 years

Detail of analysis: Average annual indirectly age-standardised rate per 100,000 population (aged 0 to 74 years); and/or indirectly age-standardised ratio, based on the Australian standard.

Source: Data compiled by PHIDU from deaths data based on the 2017 to 2021 Cause of Death Unit Record Files supplied by the Australian Coordinating Registry and the Victorian Department of Justice, on behalf of the Registries of Births, Deaths and Marriages and the National Coronial Information System. The population is the average of the ABS Estimated Resident Population (ERP) for Australia, 30 June 2017 to 30 June 2021.