While 85% of Australians rate their health as “good”, “very good”, or “excellent”, the majority do not eat enough vegetables, almost half do not do enough exercise and the proportion of overweight and obese adults is increasing.
The findings come from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s (AIHW) biennial report on the nation’s health released by the health minister, Sussan Ley, on Tuesday.
The report found life expectancy rates were at a record high, with a boy born between 2012 and 2014 expected to live to 80.3 years and a girl to 84.4 years. But although they’re living longer, 50% of Australians are living with a chronic disease such as cardiovascular disease, arthritis, diabetes or a mental illness, while 25% are living with two or more chronic health conditions.
While smoking rates and infant mortality rates among Indigenous Australians have fallen, the report found their life expectancy was one decade shorter on average than non-Indigenous Australians, at 69.1 years for men and 73.7 for women.
In 2014–15, 45% of adults aged between 18 and 64 were inactive or insufficiently active for health benefits. Meanwhile 93% of adults did not eat the recommended five daily serves of vegetables and 50% did not eat the recommended two daily serves of fruit. The proportion of overweight or obese adults also increased from 56% to 63% between 1995 and 2014–15, an average gain of 4.4kg for both men and women.
“Australians continue to put themselves at risk of developing lifestyle-related chronic illnesses that are generally associated with risk factors that we can do something about,” the report found.
“These risk factors include smoking, physical inactivity, poor nutrition and the harmful use of alcohol.”
AIHW’s director and chief executive, Barry Sandison, said while it was concerning that preventable lifestyle factors were contributing to rates of disease, socioeconomic disadvantage was also influencing the health of Australians.
“Compared with people living in the highest socioeconomic areas, people living in the lowest socioeconomic areas generally live about three years less, are 1.6 times as likely to have more than one chronic health condition, and are three times as likely to smoke daily,” he said.
For the first time, the number of deaths due to all types of cancer combined – 44,100 deaths – surpassed the number of deaths due to cardiovascular disease, including coronary heart disease, stroke and heart failure – 43,600 deaths. However coronary heart disease continues to be the leading specific cause of death; it caused 19,800 deaths in 2013.
The report also examined health spending, including money spent by governments, individuals and non-government funders, such as private health insurers. Over recent decades, health expenditure has tended to grow from year to year but in the past two years that growth has been relatively slow, the report found.
In 2013-14 an estimated $155bn was spent on health in Australia, of which $145bn was recurrent spending. Almost 68% of total health expenditure during 2013-14 was funded by governments, with the federal government contributing 41% and state and territory governments nearly 27%.
Ley said about a quarter of total government revenue was attributed to health spending. Total commonwealth investment in health would reach $71bn in 2015-16 increasing to $79bn within four years, she added.
