CANBERRA, June 20 (Xinhua) -- A half adult Australians have at least one chronic condition which impacts their daily life, according a government health report released on Wednesday.
The biennial Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) report also found that almost 25 percent of Australians suffer from two or more chronic conditions.
A significant proportion of conditions were caused by high body mass, poor diet and physical inactivity, with six out of 10 adults found to be overweight or obese, said Prof. Sanchia Aranda, the chair of the Australian Chronic Disease Prevention Alliance (ACDPA).
"As our Australian population ages, the number of us living with chronic disease is expected to balloon," Aranda said in an ACDPA statement on Tuesday.
"For Australia to lead on the global stage, we need to show a commitment to addressing the way food is formulated, promoted and labelled and creating environments where the healthy choice in nutrition and physical activity is the easy and obvious choice."
It was also reported that the proportion of "severely obese" Australians has doubled, posing a major risk for chronic conditions such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, mental health conditions, arthritis, back pain and problems, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma and diabetes.
The biennial report found the most common causes of death among Australians were coronary heart disease (about 19,000 each year) followed by dementia and Alzheimer's disease (13,123).
Dr. Terry Slevin from Public Health Australia said a third of chronic diseases were preventable.
"We don't have a clear coherent plan to tackle this and we need to focus on prevention," he said.
AIHW chief executive Barry Sandison said, those with lower incomes were three times as likely to smoke or have diabetes.
"Those in the lowest group are more than twice as likely to avoid seeing a dentist or filling a prescription due to cost," Sandison said.
