20th June, 2008

Australia’s expanding waistlines will cost the nation an extra $6 billion in health care over the next 20 years, according to a new report from the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute.

Australia’s Future ‘Fat Bomb’, a new report looking at the ramifications of the current ‘epidemic’ of excess weight among middle-aged Australians, has found that almost four million Australians are currently obese, including around 1.5 million middle-aged Australians.

Noting that cardio-vascular disease already accounts for around 50,000 deaths a year in Australia and affects close to four million people at any one time, the report says that our expanded waistlines will result in an additional 700,000 cardio-vascular disease related hospital admissions over the next 20 years and puts the cost in today’s terms at a conservative $6 billion in health care, including $2.9 billion in hospital costs alone.

The report also estimates that 123,000 men and women will die from cardio-vascular disease over the next 20 years as a result of excess weight - many of them prematurely.

It recommends that losing just five kilograms over five months has the potential to result in between 27 and 34 per cent fewer cardio-vascular disease admissions to hospitals and deaths over the next 20 years.

~ www.baker.edu.au

- DAVID ADAMS