Overweight (including obesity)

In 2018, 9.7% of the total disease burden in Australia was due to overweight (including obesity), making it the 3rd leading risk factor contributing to total disease burden among Indigenous Australians—after tobacco use and alcohol use.

These estimates reflect the amount of burden that could have been avoided if all Indigenous Australians had a body mass index of 20–25.

Overweight (including obesity) contributed to the burden of 30 diseases including: 17 types of cancer, 4 cardiovascular diseases, 3 musculoskeletal conditions, type 2 diabetes, dementia, asthma and chronic kidney disease (see ABDS 2018 Risk factor estimates for Indigenous Australians data table S1).

How much burden was attributable to overweight (including obesity)?

In 2018 among Indigenous Australians, overweight (including obesity) was responsible for over 68% of the total disease burden due to type 2 diabetes, 65% of the burden due to hypertensive heart disease, 61% of the burden due to uterine cancer, 55% of the burden due to chronic kidney disease, and 52% of the burden due to gallbladder and bile duct disease.

Overweight (including obesity) was the second leading contributor to fatal burden among Indigenous Australians, with 530 deaths (15% of all deaths) in 2018.

Note that the following visualisation displays the top 10 linked diseases due to overweight (including obesity) by the selected measure.

This interactive data visualisation shows the burden attributable to overweight (including obesity) among Indigenous Australians by linked disease. The main section shows a horizontal bar graph which can be customised to report data according to year, sex and measure of attributable burden. Each bar represents the attributable burden of the disease linked to overweight (including obesity).

How did burden attributable to overweight (including obesity) vary by age and sex?

Overweight (including obesity) contributed to disease burden across all age groups, however asthma was the only disease linked to overweight (including obesity) in children aged under 15.

In Indigenous males aged between 25 and 74, the most burden due to overweight (including obesity) was from coronary heart disease, for Indigenous females this varied by age group between coronary heart disease,  type 2 diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and asthma.

This interactive data visualisation shows the amount of burden attributable to overweight (including obesity) among Indigenous Australians by age group and linked disease. The main section shows a stacked bar graph which can be customised to report data according to year, sex, disease group and measure of attributable burden. Each bar represents the attributable burden within a particular age group. Each bar is also split into separate components with each colour representing a disease linked to overweight (including obesity).

How has disease burden due to overweight (including obesity) changed over time?

The age-standardised rate of total burden due to overweight (including obesity) (from all linked diseases) among Indigenous Australians decreased by just over 10% between 2003 and 2018 (from 52.5 to 47.0 DALY per 1,000 population). The rate of deaths associated with overweight (including obesity) decreased by 32% between 2003 and 2018 (from 2.1 to 1.4 deaths per 1,000).

This interactive data visualisation shows the rate of burden attributable to overweight (including obesity) among Indigenous Australians by year. The main section shows a horizontal bar graph which can be customised to report data according to year, sex and measure of attributable burden. Each bar represents the attributable burden within a particular year due to overweight (including obesity).