Overview

Health risk factors are attributes, characteristics or exposures that increase the likelihood of a person developing a disease or health disorder. Behavioural risk factors are those that individuals have the most ability to modify. Biomedical risk factors are bodily states that are often influenced by behavioural risk factors.

More reports and statistics on risk factors can be found under Chronic disease, Overweight & obesity, Food & nutrition, Physical activity, Smoking, Alcohol and Social determinants.

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Latest findings

Coronary heart disease, back pain, dementia, COPD, and lung cancer were the top 5 diseases causing burden in 2018

Risk factors contributing the most burden were tobacco use and overweight (including obesity)

60% of men and 66% of women in 2017–18 had a waist circumference that indicated a high risk of metabolic complications

Australia had the 6th highest proportion of overweight or obese people aged 15+ among 22 OECD member countries in 2019

Overall, the diets of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians are similar

About one-third of Australians’ energy is from discretionary foods. This is highest for teenagers aged 14–18, at 41%

Highlights

38%of Indigenous children and adolescents were overweight or obese in 2018–19, increasing from 31% in 2012–13
Australia had the 6th highest proportion of overweight or obese people aged 15+ among 22 OECD member countries in 2019
Top 3 causes of hospitalised injury in 2018–19 were falls, contact with objects, and transport accidents
‘Child abuse and neglect’ during childhood contributed 26% of the total burden of suicide in Australia in 2019
There were 121,274 national illicit drug seizures in 2019–20, equivalent to around one seizure every 4.5 minutes.
28% of treatment episodes in 2019–20 were for amphetamines, making it the second most commonly treated drug in Australia
4 in 5(79%) adults consumed alcohol in the previous year in 2019