Living with overweight or obesity has overtaken tobacco smoking as the leading risk factor contributing to disease in 2024.
Over one-third of the total burden of disease and injury in Australia in 2024 could have been avoided or reduced due to modifiable risk factors, according to the Australian Burden of Disease Study 2024.
The study, released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) yesterday, estimates the years of healthy life Australians lose because of injury, illness or premature death, measuring over 200 diseases and injuries.
The report also provides estimates of how much of this disease burden can be attributed to 20 individual risk factors such as alcohol use, physical inactivity, poor diet, overweight or obesity and tobacco smoking.
“Australians lost an estimated 5.8 million years of healthy life due to living with disease and dying prematurely in 2024,” said AIHW spokesperson Michelle Gourley.
“Overweight, including obesity, overtook tobacco use as the leading risk factor in 2024, driven by a substantial fall (41%) in the age-standardised rate of total burden attributable to tobacco use since 2003.”
The fall is likely due to declines in smoking prevalence and associated lower rates of lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
An estimated 8.3% of total disease burden in 2024 was due to overweight (including obesity) and 7.6% was due to tobacco use (excluding vaping). This was followed by dietary risks (4.8%) and high blood pressure (4.4%).
“While Australians are living longer on average, years lived in ill health are also growing, resulting in little change in the proportion of life spent in full health.
“This contributes to the growing demand and pressures on the health system and services,’ said Ms Gourley.
Males were at greater risk for disease than females across all age groups, driven by higher mortality rates for men. The leading individual causes of disease also differed between males and females. Coronary heart disease was the leading cause of disease among males, and dementia was the leading cause of burden among females.
Risk factors for Australian youths
Alcohol use and illicit drug use were the leading risk factors contributing to disease burden for young males aged 15–24, while sadly child abuse and neglect was the leading risk factor contributing t for young females of the same age.
For young people, mental health conditions and suicide and self-inflicted injuries were the leading contributors of disease. For males aged 15–24, suicide and self-inflicted injuries ranked highest (12%), followed by anxiety disorders (10%) and depression (7%). For young females of the same age, the leading cause of disease were anxiety disorders (17%), depression (12%) and eating disorders (7%).
Burden of disease was the gold standard approach for measuring the impact of illness, injury and death, and the data would inform health policy and service planning, said Ms Gourley.
