Being overweight has overtaken tobacco smoking as the leading risk factor contributing to disease in 2024, new government data shows.
The Australian Burden of Disease Study 2024, released on Thursday by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, estimates that Australians lost 5.8m years of healthy life due to living with illness and injury, or dying prematurely. This loss of healthy life is called the “burden of disease”.
Including national estimates for 220 diseases and injury, the study found overall there was a 10% decrease in the rates of disease burden between 2003 and 2024 driven by a 26% decrease in the rate of people dying prematurely.
But the rate of living with illness or injury increased by 7%.
More than one in three cases of disease and injury in Australia in 2024 (36%) could have been avoided, the study found, listing 20 risk factors including alcohol use, physical inactivity, poor diet, being overweight or obese and tobacco smoking.
While tobacco use had previously been the leading risk factor contributing to disease burden, a 41% decrease in the rate of its contribution since 2003 has seen being overweight become the most significant factor.
The report acknowledged the tobacco estimates do not include nicotine vaping, which was outside the scope of the study but will be included among a number of new risk factors in 2026.
The study found 8.3% of disease burden in 2024 could be attributed to the risk factor of being overweight, followed by 7.6% to tobacco use, and 4.8% to all dietary risks.
The chief executive of the Public Health Association of Australia, Terry Slevin, said while a third of the causes of burdens of disease are preventable, only a 50th of the government’s health funding is directed towards public and preventive health’s efforts to keep people healthier.
Calling the study a “really important scorecard” of the health of people in Australia, Slevin said it “demonstrated that the decades of focus and effort that we’ve put into tobacco control is showing return on that investment”.
“The next cab off the rank, when it comes to the really big picture with regard to the health of people in Australia, is to start turning around that overweight and obesity ship.
“That’s not about a loss of control from individuals, but it’s a change in societal circumstances where we’re less physically active, where our food supplies change such that we’re having greater and aggressive promotion of high-energy, low-nutrient value foods as a population.
“As is the case around the world, we’re becoming more overweight and obese.”
Slevin said a number of government reports have already recommended strategies including tax policies that encourage the food industry to reformulate their products to reduce the amount of sugar in them as well as making the health star rating mandatory rather than voluntary.
But the chief executive of the Butterfly Foundation, Dr Jim Hungerford, in November wrote an editorial criticising AIHW’s focus on weight statistics.
Natalie Spicer, the head of clinical and support services at the foundation, said: “While this kind of public health messaging is looking at population level, on an individual level weight-centric messaging around health isn’t helpful and can in fact perpetuate harmful stigma …
“You cannot assume a person’s health, eating and exercise behaviours based on their size or appearance.”
