The challenge
Diabetes is the fastest growing chronic condition in Australia and around the world. There is an estimated 1.7 million Australian with diabetes, that is nearly 5% of the population. There are 280 Australian developing diabetes every day. That is one person diagnosed with diabetes every five minutes.
Three main types of diabetes are:
- Type 1 Diabetes – the body does not produce insulin. There were over 117,000 people diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in Australia in March 2016.
- Type 2 Diabetes – the body does not produce enough insulin for proper function. There were over 1 million Australians diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in March 2016.
- Gestational Diabetes – occurs during pregnancy. This impacted nearly 35,000 women in Australia.