A leading researcher has urged diabetics to have annual health checks after a new analysis showed Hunter residents were more than twice as likely to be hospitalised with chronic kidney disease as people in North Sydney.
Diabetes Australia has published new figures which show people in the Hunter New England and Central Coast public health network are hospitalised with diabetic kidney disease at a rate of 340 per 100,000.
The hospitalisation rate is the third highest in Australia, behind only the Northern Territory and Western Queensland, even though rates of diabetes in Hunter New England and Central Coast are slightly below the national average.
Hospitalisation rates are significantly lower in North Sydney (155 per 100,00 people), the ACT (160) and Nepean Blue Mountains (169).
University of Melbourne associate professor Sof Andrikopoulos said the relatively high hospitalisation rate in Hunter New England and Central Coast could be due to diabetics not making regular GP visits.
"Even though diabetes rates are similar to the national average, if people aren't getting their health checks done, if people are not attending their GP to get their annual cycle of care, then complications from diabetes would increase, and one of those complications is chronic kidney disease," Dr Andrikopoulos told the Newcastle Herald on Monday.
"We would encourage people to go to their GP, particularly in regional areas of NSW."
Dr Andrikopoulos said the COVID-19 pandemic had caused a spike in complications from diabetes as patients were less likely to visit their doctor.
Diabetes Australia group chief executive Justine Cain said the hospitalisation figures demonstrated an urgent need for a national diabetes kidney disease screening program.
Ms Cain said the pattern of regions being hardest hit by kidney hospitalisations highlighted the need to improve early detection and treatment of chronic kidney disease.
"Diabetes is one of the leading causes of chronic kidney disease, with more than 330,000 people living with both conditions," she said in a statement.
"The impact of diabetic kidney disease on hospitalisations points to an urgent need to increase rates of kidney checks among people living with diabetes."
