Living with overweight or obesity has overtaken tobacco smoking as the leading risk factor contributing to disease burden in 2024.
The Australian Burden of Disease Study 2024, released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), estimated the millions of years of healthy life Australians lose because of injury, illness or premature death – measuring over 200 diseases and injuries.
This report also provides estimates of how much of this disease burden can be attributed to 20 individual risk factors such as alcohol use, physical inactivity, poor diet, overweight or obesity and tobacco smoking.
‘Australians lost an estimated 5.8 million years of healthy life due to living with disease and dying prematurely in 2024,’ said AIHW spokesperson Ms Michelle Gourley.
‘Over one-third of the total burden of disease and injury in Australia in 2024 could have been avoided or reduced due to modifiable risk factors included in the study.
‘Overweight, including obesity, overtook tobacco use as the leading risk factor in 2024, driven by a substantial fall (41%) in the age-standardised rate of total burden attributable to tobacco use since 2003.
‘This fall is likely due to declines in smoking prevalence and burden rates from some of the major linked diseases, such as lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).’
An estimated 8.3% of total disease burden in 2024 was due to overweight (including obesity) and 7.6% was due to tobacco use (excluding vaping). This was followed by dietary risks (4.8%) and high blood pressure (4.4%).
Alcohol use and illicit drug use were the leading risk factors contributing to disease burden for young males aged 15–24, while child abuse and neglect was the leading risk factor contributing to burden for young females of the same age.
When looking at rates of total disease burden, there was a 10% decrease between 2003 and 2024 after adjusting for population ageing. This decrease was driven by a 26% decrease in the rate of fatal burden, as the non-fatal burden rate increased by 7%.
‘While Australians are living longer on average, years lived in ill health are also growing, resulting in little change in the proportion of life spent in full health. This contributes to the growing demand and pressures on the health system and services,’ said Ms Gourley.
In line with previous years, cancer was the leading group of diseases causing burden in 2024 (16.4%), with 91.3% of this burden fatal and 8.7% non-fatal.
The leading specific causes of disease burden were coronary heart disease (5.5%), dementia (4.5%), back pain and problems (4.3%), anxiety disorders (3.9%) and COPD (3.7%).
Males experienced more total disease burden than females across all age groups, driven by males having higher rates of fatal burden. The leading individual causes of burden also differed between males and females. Coronary heart disease was the leading cause of burden among males, and dementia was the leading cause of burden among females.
For young people, mental health conditions and suicide and self-inflicted injuries were the leading contributors of disease burden.
For males aged 15–24, suicide and self-inflicted injuries caused the most burden (12%), followed by anxiety disorders (10%) and depression (7%). For young females of the same age, the leading causes of burden were anxiety disorders (17%), depression (12%) and eating disorders (7%).
In the 5–14 age group, the leading causes of disease burden were autism spectrum disorders and asthma for males, and asthma and anxiety disorders for females.
‘Burden of disease is the gold standard approach for measuring the impact of illness, injury and death, and this information provides an important evidence base to inform health policy and service planning,’ said Ms Gourley.