Australians and hearing loss

Australian Hearing recently conducted a survey of 1,000 Australians and has published the results in " Is Australia Listening? Attitudes to Hearing Loss" [ NB.large file 3.5 Mb].

The report is the first survey by Australian Hearing into Australian's perceptions and behaviours regarding healthy hearing.

Some of the findings are that:

• more than two thirds of respondents said they listen to music through headphones regularly;
• 60 percent of those Australians who listen to music through headphones sometimes have the volume so loud that people usually have to shout to be heard, indicating that it's too loud and could be causing damage;
• one quarter of younger Australians (18-24 year olds) don't realise that once your hearing is damaged , it cannot be restored;
• just over half the population actively protect their hearing by avoiding noisy places, limiting length of exposure to loud noise, or limiting the volume of music played through headphones;
• 70 percent of 18 to 34 year olds have experienced tinnitus compared to 50 per cent of those above 55; and
• 20 per cent of Australian adults claim that they are exposed to unbearably loud noise at least once a week

The report also reports on:

• perceptions of our own hearing;
• knowledge of what causes hearing loss; and
• attitudes to hearing aids.

The Australian Hearing website has additional information on preventing hearing loss, as well as details of the Telscreen hearing check which enables you to have a free hearing screening over the phone.

HealthInsite has topic pages on Hearing Impairments and Tinnitus.

 

Diabetic deaths to rise

New research paints a grim picture regarding the implications of type-2 diabetes for mortality and morbidity in Australia. From a nationally-representative sample of diabetics, the study forecasts that 13 percent will die in the next five years, and 31 percent will be dead within a decade. One in five will have a heart attack by 2018, and one in 12 will suffer a stroke, or other complications such as amputation, blindness, or renal failure. About 700,000 Australians are known to have diabetes, and it is expected that this number will continue to grow.

Associate Professor Danny Liew, a clinical pharmacologist at St Vincent's Hospital in Melbourne, says the figures are compelling and unexpected, and the outlook for diabetics is not good. Type-2 diabetes is a disease that is very much related to lifestyle and is triggered by poor diet, lack of exercise, and weight gain.

Dr Liew and his colleagues were able to build a predictive model to assess the health outlook for diabetics using data from the nation's largest diabetes study, AusDiab. The model to assess the health outlook for diabetics used a sample of 825 people who were older and had a range of complications such as obesity, high cholesterol, and high-blood pressure.

Experts say while the numbers of people developing diabetes were on the rise, death rates overall were decreasing, but the situation is still bad and the complications remain a major burden. It is estimated that type-2 diabetes costs an average of $5,350 per person a year to treat, from $4,000 in the early-stage disease to almost $10,000 for people with common, diabetes-related complications.

While unable to comment on the validity of the findings of the research, Diabetes Australia CEO Matt O'Brian says that it's an important reminder of the serious impact of diabetes, and underscores the urgent need for action on the condition.

The paper was presented at the American Diabetes Association 68th Scientific Sessions and the abstract is Future Burden of Disease Arising from Type 2 Diabetes in Australia.

HealthInsite has many topic pages on Diabetes including Prevention of Diabetes, Complications of Diabetes, and Living with Diabetes.

 

Invest in a future without dementia

Alzheimer's Australia has released a report entitled Australian Dementia Research that recommends annual funding for dementia research is increased three-fold to $36 million in response to the growing economic and social impact of the dementia epidemic. Prepared by the Dementia Collaborative Research Centre at the University of NSW, the report concludes that current investment over the last six years in dementia research was about $13 million, some 0.6% of the total direct costs of the disease. It recommends investment in dementia research should be maintained at 1.5% of the direct cost of dementia to keep pace with the increasing costs of treatment and care.

The Minister for Ageing, the Hon Justine Elliot MP, issued a statement highlighting that the Australian Government is investing $320 million over five years for dementia research and support. There are more than 200,000 Australians living with dementia, including about one in four people aged 85 years and over. This is expected to double in the next 20 years as Australia's population ages.

HealthInsite has topic pages on both Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia.

 

Australia's health 2008

Australia is one of the healthiest nations in the world, but there are groups of people whose health still lags behind according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's latest national report card on health. AIHW Director, Dr Penny Allbon, said that Australia's "status at, or near, the top of world health had been achieved efficiently, with per-person health spending being in the middle of the health spending tables for developed nations".

The report, Australia's health 2008, launched by the Federal Health Minister, the Hon Nicola Roxon MP, at the Australia's health 2008 conference in Canberra shows falling death rates for cancer, heart disease, strokes, and injury. The report also finds that Australians enjoy one of the highest life expectancies in the world - an average of 81.4 years, second only to Japan.

Australian men reaching the age of 65 can now expect to live to about 83 years, and women to 86 years - about six years more than their counterparts a century ago. This is partly because of a decline in Australia's smoking rates which are now among the lowest in the world. In 2007, about one in six Australian adults were daily smokers.

Australia is also a leader in vaccinating children, and in vaccinating older people against influenza. Over 90 percent of children are fully vaccinated against major preventable childhood diseases at two years of age. Most migrants enjoy health that is as good as, or better than that of the Australian-born population - often with lower rates of death, hospitalisation, disability, and disease risk factors.

Indigenous people, on the other hand, die at much younger ages and have a greater disease burden, more disability, and a lower quality of life than other Australians. Despite improvements in Indigenous death rates, the overall gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous rates appears to be widening. The gap in death rates between Indigenous infants and other Australian infants, however, is narrowing.

In general, people living in rural and remote areas also tend to have shorter lives and higher levels of illness and disease risk factors than people in major cities. These findings are influenced, but not fully explained, by the relatively high proportion of Indigenous Australians living in remote and very remote areas. Disadvantaged Australians, wherever they live, are more likely to have shorter lives, higher levels of disease risk factors, and lower use of preventative health services.

Dr Allbon said it was clear from the report that there was great scope for health improvements through tackling the so-called 'lifestyle' health risk factors. "In rank order, the greatest improvements can be achieved through reductions in tobacco smoking, high blood pressure, overweight/obesity, physical inactivity, high blood cholesterol, and excessive alcohol consumption. The prevalence of diabetes, which is strongly related to these risk factors, has doubled in the past two decades", Dr Allbon said.

"Of similar concern is that 7.4 million adults were overweight in 2004-05, with over 30 percent of those being obese. And close to three in ten children and young people are overweight or obese."

Excessive alcohol consumption not only brings costs in terms of personal health, but tangible social costs in terms of lost productivity, health care costs, road accident costs and crime-related costs that have been estimated at $10.8 billion in 2004-05."