Member for Gaven Dr Alex Douglas MP says there are more than 3,200 people in his electorate living with type 2 diabetes and a further 8,900 at high risk of developing the condition.
Dr Douglas attended a breakfast at Parliament House this morning where MPs had health checks and type 2 diabetes risk assessments, as part of the Healthy Parliament, Healthy Queensland event.
Dr Douglas demonstrated his commitment to raising awareness about type 2 diabetes by taking a free risk assessment.
“Type 2 diabetes is the world’s fastest lifestyle disease and the situation in the electorate of Gaven is no different,” he said.
“I had my risk assessed because type 2 diabetes is serious and I wanted to better understand the risks to my health.
“It was quick and straight forward, and I encourage people across the community to log on to www.diabtesqld.org.au to find out their own risk.”
Diabetes Queensland CEO Michelle Trute said risk assessments were an important step in addressing the growing type 2 diabetes epidemic and reducing the significant costs associated with the disease.
“There are more than 1.5 million Australians living with type 2 diabetes which costs the Australian taxpayer an estimated $14.6 billion per annum,” Ms Trute said.
“This bill is forecast to increase to $30 billion by 2025 unless urgent action is taken.”
Ms Trute encouraged all Queenslanders to understand their risk of developing type 2 diabetes by taking the free online test using the Australian Type 2 Diabetes Risk Assessment Tool (AUSDRISK).
“The test only takes around five minutes and could be the difference between whether or not you develop type 2 diabetes,” Ms Trute said.
If you score 12 or more you are at high risk and may have prediabetes – you should consult your doctor and talk about a prevention program.
Type 1 and type 2 diabetes are lifelong conditions that can affect every part of an individual’s life. Both need to be managed daily to reduce the risk of the diabetes related complications and improve quality of life and life expectancy. While type 2 diabetes is largely preventable and can often be managed by healthy eating and exercise alone, type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune condition that attacks the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin. Type 1 diabetes can occur at any age but it generally occurs in children and young adults. Type 1 diabetes cannot be prevented.