Ladies and gentlemen, here are the results. Thirroul 3.8 per cent, Kiama 4.8 per cent, North Wollongong 5.2 per cent, Shellharbour 5.6 per cent, Bellambi 6.4 per cent, Avondale 6.9 per cent, Barrack Heights 7.9 per cent, Berkeley 7.9 per cent. Port Kembla 8.2 per cent, Cringila 9.4 per cent, NSW 5.1 per cent, Australia 4.9 per cent.
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Are these the results of a poll to see who actually likes salted caramel ice-cream? No (for the record, salted caramel ice-cream is one of my favourites!). How about the percentage of people who feel so outraged at the Volkswagen emissions fiasco they’ll attempt to claim compensation? Nope. The percentage of people who are living with and fighting diabetes on a daily basis? You got it.
These are the latest results from the “Diabetes Map” of the National Diabetes Services Scheme, an initiative of the Australian Government and administered by Diabetes Australia.
The results for our patch of Australia make for woeful viewing. Many of our communities in the Illawarra are well above the state and national average diabetes percentage. In communities like Cringila and Port Kembla, diabetes is actually more common than in some of the areas of western Sydney that have received attention from the ABC recently.
Why aren’t we making a bigger deal about this? There is not a single good thing I can think of to say about diabetes. In Australia, it costs tens of billions of dollars a year to treat.
Type 2 diabetes, which is the type that most people with diabetes have, is actually preventable. But it’s clear we are not good enough at preventing it.
Here’s the rub. When people are admitted to hospital or present at an emergency department, the wonderful health service staff can do an amazing job of patching us up and sending us on our way as soon as we feel fit and able. But once we leave those bastions of health expertise, we usually return back to the circumstances – the built environments where we live, where we work, where we take our children to school, where we hang out with friends and family - that shaped our lifestyle choices and health in the first place.
It’s a bit like a vicious circle. We hope the health sector can help us in our hour of need, but the doctors and nurses and other health professionals have little control over those “social determinants” that caused our poor health in the first place.
What we do know is that diabetes risk varies according to where you live. Coincidence? I don’t think so. I’m actively doing research on what features of our built environment support healthy choices, and what features are conspiring against us, even while we sleep.
I’m interested in working with communities, schools, workplaces, general practitioners, colleges, sports clubs, councils, anyone and everyone interested in discovering what makes for a health promoting neighbourhood. Get in contact with your GP. Diabetes won’t go away on its own.
Author: Dr Xiaoqi Feng, Senior Lecture in Epidemiology, HealthTrack Study.
