According to Diabetes Australia, 10,249 Australians living with diabetes are now undergoing kidney replacement therapy, including dialysis, each year.

More than 1.5 million Australians live with diabetes, which can lead to serious complications including kidney disease.

With diabetes patients on dialysis accounting for approximately 5% of all hospitalisations, this has a significant impact on hospital capacity countrywide.

Earlier detection of kidney disease could save the Australian economy an estimated $500M per annum.²

Pathology Awareness Australia (PAA) ambassador Professor Graham Jones, a chemical pathologist who specialises in pathology testing for kidney disease, is encouraging people living with diabetes to get regular kidney checks to prevent the onset of kidney disease. Prof Jones said:

“Laboratory tests for the detection of kidney disease are crucial as it does not show clinical symptoms in its initial stages. For people living with diabetes, regular blood and urine tests play a vital role in identifying and monitoring from early onset.

“Staying proactive by scheduling GP check-ups is important to ensure timely diagnosis of kidney disease. If caught early, effective measures can be taken to prevent or slow down further kidney damage. Neglecting the condition can lead to kidney failure, dialysis, and in some cases, a kidney transplant may be required.”

Simple blood and urine checks, along with blood pressure checks, can effectively monitor kidney function and allow for early treatment, reducing the chance that people living with diabetes will require dialysis or kidney transplant.

While more than 300 Australians with diabetes currently receive a kidney transplant every year, a huge 2,024 people living with diabetes in Australia die from kidney disease each year, a concerning number for a mostly preventable condition.

PAA, Diabetes Australia and Kidney Health Australia say it is important for people with diabetes to work with their diabetes care teams and schedule annual kidney health checks.

Justine Cain, Group CEO of Diabetes Australia, said:

“More than 10,000 Australians living with diabetes are currently undergoing kidney replacement therapy. Most kidney failure can be prevented with early intervention; however, just under a quarter (23%) of people are getting their kidneys checked within recommended timeframes.”

Kidney disease occurs when the filters inside the kidneys become damaged and can no longer filter the blood properly. This can cause waste products to build up in the body and may progress to kidney failure, which in turn requires dialysis or a kidney transplant for survival.

In its earlier stages, kidney disease can be managed by various lifestyle changes, along with medication which can slow progression. Chris Forbes, CEO of Kidney Health Australia, said:

“We are championing early detection and prevention of progression of kidney disease for all Australians, with a special focus on those at greatest risk – those living with diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and high blood pressure.

“Kidney Health Australia is leading the fight to identify the 1.8 million Australians unaware they have kidney disease and help them, and their families manage the condition more effectively from start to end. We’ve developed a holistic approach that goes beyond merely screening individuals. Early diagnosis, better treatment and support post-diagnosis go hand in hand for achieving best outcomes.

Our recent Deloitte Economics Access report exposes kidney disease as a national emergency, costing the Australian economy $9.9 billion each year, including $2.3 billion in direct costs to the health system. Now is the time to invest in kidney health, for everyday Aussies, the economy, the healthcare system, and the environment.”

Diabetes was an underlying or associated cause of death in more than 2,000 people living with chronic kidney disease in Australia in 2020.³

In the coming years, this is expected to increase due to the rising prevalence of type 2 diabetes and the strong association between it and diabetic kidney disease.⁴

According to PAA pathologist Prof Jones, regular laboratory testing for kidney damage is a key factor to improve the health of people living with diabetes.

References:

1. https://www.diabetesaustralia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2023-Diabetes-Related-Kidney-Disease-Report-1.4-DIGITAL.pdf
2. https://kidney.org.au/uploads/resources/Changing-the-CKD-landscape-Economic-benefits-of-early-detection-and-treatment.pdf
3. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2023) Chronic kidney disease: Australian facts, AIHW, Australian Government, accessed 11 June 2023.
4. Reutens AT. Epidemiology of diabetic kidney disease. Med Clin North Am. 2013;97(1):1-18

Image credit: Robina Weermeijer on Unsplash

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There are significant health complications that come with diabetes, such as micro vascular damage which can impact the brain, feet and eyes, and macro vascular damage that can seriously impact organs like kidneys and the heart.

In addition to that there are substantial healthcare costs that governments need to consider. In Australia, direct costs are $1.7bn a year, the indirect costs, $14bn.

Avoiding these complications is therefore an absolute health and economic imperative.

According to a report from the Centre for International Economics, detecting diabetes at its early stages can halve medical costs and significantly improve health outcomes.

And if you can pick up on your risk at the prediabetes stage, the opportunity to turn your health around without significant medical complications is significantly enhanced.

So what’s the test and who should take it?

There are two ways to test for diabetes, the measurement of blood sugar levels or the HbA1c test. The HbA1c test is simpler and does not require fasting and unless your doctor finds a reason that the test is not suitable for you it can be used. The HbA1c test takes a snapshot of your blood sugar levels over the last three months.

If you haven’t had an HbA1c diabetes test before, you should speak to your doctor about it if the following apply to you: if you’re over 35 years of age, your waist is over 100cm, you have a family history of type 2 diabetes, blurred vision, are thirsty, or do less than two-and-a-half hours of exercise a week.

The healthy range for HbA1c is less than 6.0% (also expressed as less than 41 mmol/mol)  and results of 6.5% (48 mmol/mol) or higher indicates diabetes. Results from 6.1% to 6.4% indicate a higher risk of developing diabetes in the future.

How often should you take the test?

How often you should take an HbA1c test to monitor your glycated haemoglobin levels depends on what category you fell into in the first test, as well as ongoing lifestyle choices which we will be looking at in a future article.

Ideal range

If you scored a range of 6.0% or lower in your test, that’s a good thing and you’re clearly doing something right.

‘A person who has an HbA1c 6.0% or lower is in the expected range for a healthy person and is showing good glucose control,’ says Associate Professor Graham Jones, an Australian Clinical Biochemist and pathologist.

‘That being said, there are several other health factors that impact risk, so you need to keep an eye on those things. Your GP is best to advise you here, but as a rule of thumb it’s worth having the discussion with your doctor every three years.’

Prediabetes range

An HbA1c from 6.1% to 6.4% places you in the “at risk” range. That’s not ideal, but the good news is that you have the opportunity to institute lifestyle changes which can help you avoid progressing to diabetes and the serious medical conditions flowing from diabetes.

‘The thing about prediabetes is that it’s an opportunity to do a stocktake of your lifestyle and make changes before serious medical complications begin,’ says Professor Jones.

‘In terms of how often someone in this range should have an HbA1c test, a repeat test in a year is usually recommended, although it should be noted that Medicare does not cover more than one test per year without a diagnosis of diabetes.’

Diabetes range

If you have scored 6.5% or above on your HbA1c test, you are in the diabetic range and will need to speak to your doctor about how to manage the condition to avoid further health complications. The first step will be a repeat test to confirm the diagnosis.

Your doctor will identify the correct HbA1c “target” for you with lifestyle factors being the first line on therapy, but often medications are also needed to keep the HbA1c at the desired level.

‘People who have been diagnosed with diabetes need to have an A1c test every three months initially to make sure the measures you’re taking to manage the condition are working.

‘If you manage to bring it under control, you might be able to wait longer, but taking a test twice a year would be considered the minimum,’ said Professor Jones.

The post How often should you have a type 2 diabetes test? first appeared on Know Pathology Know Healthcare.

In round terms that’s 40,500 pregnant women that will develop gestational diabetes each year.

The report also found that pregnant women with gestational diabetes were more likely to require caesareans, have their labour induced, and suffer pre-eclampsia and gestational hypertension.

Gestational diabetes usually manifests itself usually between the 24^th and 28^th week of pregnancy.

For most women it’s a temporary situation and they will return to normal after their baby is born, but in some cases, it will become a permanent condition.

After winning the 400-metre event at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Cathy Freeman became a household name, receiving wall-to-wall coverage for her athletic prowess.

A paragon of health and well-being, one wouldn’t have figured her as a candidate for diabetes but whilst pregnant with her first child she discovered she had developed gestational diabetes.

Associate Professor Graham Jones, an Australian Clinical Biochemist and pathologist, comments on the cause of gestational diabetes:

‘The exact mechanisms remain uncertain, however there is a resistance to the action of insulin (the key hormone which controls blood sugar levels) which becomes worse during pregnancy, combined with an inability of the pancreas to secrete enough insulin.

‘And especially if your body already struggles with insulin resistance, you may develop gestational diabetes.’

And because gestational diabetes is a condition which can sneak up on a woman despite enjoying robust health, guidelines from the Australian Diabetes in Pregnancy Society (ADIPS) recommend that pregnant women should be tested for gestational diabetes between weeks 24 and 28 of their pregnancy.

The test should be taken earlier by pregnant women at increased risk of developing diabetes.

There is an extensive list of risk factors, which include:

• Having gestational diabetes in a previous pregnancy
• being 40 years of age or older
• having a family history of type 2 diabetes
• having a mother or sister who has had gestational diabetes
• being above the healthy weight range
• being of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds

• being of Melanesian, Polynesian, Chinese, Southeast Asian, Middle Eastern or Indian background
• history of polycystic ovarian syndrome

How to test for gestational diabetes

The test for gestational diabetes is called the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) which requires you to fast overnight, after which a blood sample will be taken. You will then be asked to drink a sugary solution and be tested one, and two hours after the drink. The test is designed to see how your body responds to this challenge.

If the blood glucose levels are above the normal range at any of the three stages of testing, the results indicate you have gestational diabetes.

If you are found to have gestational diabetes, your clinician will be able to direct you on the best course of action, which may include a healthy eating plan, regular activity and the continued monitoring of your blood sugar levels.

While most women will return to normal blood glucose levels after pregnancy, there is an increased risk of ongoing diabetes and for developing type 2 diabetes in the future. The ADIPS guidelines recommend a routine OGTT 6 – 12 weeks after delivery.

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According to Dementia Australia, type 2 diabetes can double your risk of developing dementia. The risk of developing dementia in the general population is around 10% while those with type 2 diabetes have a 20% risk of developing the condition.

Recent research from the University of Newcastle’s Clinical Nutrition Research Centre (NHMRC) suggests that the dementia link relates to fluctuating blood-sugar levels, and possibly constriction and damage to small blood vessels that send blood to the brain.

Some people report experiencing brain fog as a result of the ups and downs that are associated with quickly rising and falling blood-sugar levels, but the dementia link shows the issue is a lot more serious than simply a sugar crash.

And it’s not just the NHMRC drawing the links between diabetes and mental function.

According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), diabetes ‘alters cerebral metabolism, structure and function’, as well as mood and motivation.

These are significant impacts in a learning or workplace environment but the link to a more thoroughgoing and debilitating brain condition are concerning.

Associate Professor Graham Jones, a Clinical Biochemist and pathologist explains how diabetes impacts the brain.

‘Diabetes is a medical condition that when undetected or left untreated can lead to significant macro and microvascular complications.

‘Sometimes that can lead to amputations, particularly of feet, as the smaller blood vessels at the periphery of the body struggle for blood supply.

‘And of course there are micro-vessels in the brain, so diabetes – which can lead to the constriction of blood supply – is going to have an impact there as well.’

Research conducted by the Centre for International Economics in 2016 showed that the sooner diabetes or prediabetes is detected, the greater the health and economic outcomes.

According to the report, the average annual healthcare cost per person for someone with type 2 diabetes in Australia was $4,025 compared to $9,645 for someone who had developed micro and macrovascular complications.

‘What the new research shows, and what we know already, is that early detection of diabetes is at an absolute premium from an all-round health perspective,’ Professor Jones said.

‘There are several risk factors for type 2 diabetes, such as being older (i.e over 35), having a larger waist (over 100cms), or doing less than 2.5 hours of physical activity per week.

‘For those who think they might have diabetes or be at the edge, there are simple blood tests, either a blood sugar test or the HbA1c test that will tell you where you’re at. If you’re concerned that you or a loved one might be at risk, you should speak with your doctor about it.’

The post Not just a body issue: how diabetes impacts the mind first appeared on Know Pathology Know Healthcare.

The idea of starting the year with a clean slate, particularly a clean bill of health, is appealing. We run through five health tests that might be worth considering.

The type 2 diabetes, or HbA1c, test

A relatively new test, the HbA1c test looks at ‘glycated haemoglobin’ in your body, averaged over the last three months, to determine if you have diabetes, prediabetes or healthy levels of HbA1c.

With 1.2 million Australians living with diabetes, a further 500,00 suspected of having undiagnosed diabetes and with the condition projected to grow to 3.5 million by 2033, it’s a real spectre on the health horizon. Someone can live with diabetes for 7 years before any symptoms become apparent, causing damage to the body in the meantime.

Take the 2-minute AUSDRISK diabetes assessment to learn if you might be at risk and need to book in for a test.

The skin cancer, or melanoma, test

Australians have the highest rates of skin cancer in the world, and melanoma is the third most common cancer in Australia, and two-thirds of Australians will be diagnosed with skin cancer by the time they’re 70.

A visit to the doctor or skin specialist to check spots and for other symptoms is your first port of call. If required, the doctor may perform a biopsy to test for any suspected skin cancer.

Bowel cancer screening

Every year 17,000 Australians are diagnosed with bowel cancer, but the good news is that bowel cancer is one of the preventable cancers, meaning with changes to diet and lifestyle, the dangers can be reversed or mitigated.

Of those diagnosed with bowel cancer, 93% are aged over 50. If detected early, 9 out of 10 bowel cancer cases can be successfully treated. And in a stroke of further good fortune, the Australian government runs a free bowel screening test program, sending a testing kit to your house, no less, which you can conduct and return at your own convenience.

Cholesterol test

Cholesterol is no good for the old heart and brain, so if you’re over 45 you want to check that out – particularly if high cholesterol and heart disease run in the family. For those under 45, other risk factors include smoking, excess weight, diabetes, high blood pressure renal failure, or being of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent.

A cholesterol test involves taking a blood sample and looking for LDL-C, a bad cholesterol (there are good ones too) which collects in the walls of blood vessels.

STI and related tests

No, young people do not escape testing. If you are sexually active you might want to consider testing for chlamydia, syphilis, or gonorrhoea, as well as the three H’s: human papillomavirus, HIV and hepatitis.

STIs are on the rise in Australia and often symptoms will be missed. If not detected and treated the health effects can be significant. More detail on how these tests work can be found here.

While GPs are often the first port of call for someone concerned about a medical condition, and where test referrals are made, it’s the pathology lab where a diagnosis is determined.

‘There are plenty of health conditions out there of concern,’ says Victorian pathologist, Dr David Clift ‘but the good news is that a lot of these conditions are preventable and treatable.’

‘Certainly, the five conditions mentioned here are preventable. If you haven’t had a test ever or for a while and have concerns, it’s good to know with Australia’s leading-edge pathology sector that you can have a simple test and set your mind at ease for the coming year.’

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The post Pathology testing and diabetes first appeared on Know Pathology Know Healthcare.

In Australia, 1.2 million people currently live with diabetes with a further 500,000 assumed to have undiagnosed diabetes.

Associate Professor Ken Sikaris, a practising Chemical Pathologist who lectures at Melbourne University, understands the magnitude of the diabetes health problem:

“People often think diabetes only affects blood sugar and energy levels, but the knock-on health effects are profound. Heart attacks, kidney disease, eye disease, amputations, are just some of the health consequences.

“The problem is that people can live with diabetes for seven years without knowing it, during which time diabetes can be causing significant damage to their bodies.”

The global diabetes problem is significant.

India – a country that has historically battled the problem of malnourishment – is now in the throes of a significant and growing diabetes epidemic. According to The Lancet, in 1980 11.9 million Indians had diabetes, by 2014 it was 64.5 million. Four years later it sits at 74 million.

Similarly, China had 20.4 million people living with diabetes in 1980, growing to 102.9 million by 2014. But India and China represent only part of the problem.

Worldwide there are now 425 million people living with the condition a figure projected to reach 629 million by 2045.

An economic wrecking ball

Beside the significant health costs, diabetes is also wreaking significant damage to national health budgets.

In Australia, the direct cost of diabetes treatment is $1.7 billion, the indirect costs $14 billion. With the 2015-2016 total health budget being $170.4 billion, that’s a significant chunk – over 12% of the health budget to tackle the indirect costs of diabetes in Australia.

The story’s mirrored elsewhere. In India, the direct cost of treating diabetes was $73 billion AUD in 2014. In China it was $238.8 billion.

To put that into perspective, in 2015, global health expenditure on diabetes was $945 billion AUD, 12% of global health expenditure.

And it’s not just the direct and indirect costs that matter, it’s also the opportunity cost – what might have been spent in other areas of healthcare.

What’s the answer?

While exercise is good and important for overall health, the idea of balancing off poor dietary decisions by exercise is a formula that is clearly failing.

The nature of work in an increasingly digital and mechanised world is leading to more sedentary lifestyles. But even if work were still highly labour intensive, the amount of calories consumed in modern diets is too much to realistically burn off.

Education and public policy around the benefits of a healthy diet is of clear importance in tackling the problem.

What is also critical to combatting the growth of diabetes is pathology testing.

With large reservoirs of people living with undetected diabetes, early detection through testing is vital. If someone is found to have prediabetes, lifestyle changes can help halt the progression to diabetes and in some cases to reverse it.

Treating people with prediabetes is easier than treating someone with diabetes, and cheaper too.

Early detection of diabetes through the HbA1c test is key to better health outcomes and economic costs. The knock-on benefits are substantial, says A/Professor Sikaris:

“A 1% reduction in HbA1c (the key indicator of diabetes) can reduce kidney disease by 40%, heart attack by 16%, amputation by 21% and eye disease by 43%.

“And budget savings from early detection can be profound. The average cost of treating type 2 diabetes without complications is $4,025, while treating type 2 diabetes at a later stage, when there are micro and macrovascular complications, costs $9,645 on average.”

A 2016 report by the Centre for International Economics (CIE) on the economic value of pathology notes that diabetes rates are projected to rise to 3.5 million by 2033 – and that 68 per cent of adults with diabetes will die of heart disease or stroke.

The post Diabetes: a looming health & economic wrecking ball first appeared on Know Pathology Know Healthcare.

Today, average life expectancy for the world has climbed to over 70 from 48 in 1950. With the spectre of global food and remedy shortages waning, and advances in medicine, the horizon for humanity and life expectancy is surely on the up and up, right? Well, perhaps not.

According to Professor Jenny Gunton from the Westmead Institute for Medical Research and Sydney Medical School, researchers are warning of a health epidemic stemming, almost perversely, not from food or medical shortages but from lifestyle choices made in the context of superabundance.

So, despite living in an unprecedented age of plenty, the rise in lifestyle-related chronic diseases like obesity and diabetes is setting Australia up for a significant health crisis, and all the attendant social and economic knock-on effects that entails.

The most common causes of death in Australia are all lifestyle related, stemming from obesity and physical inactivity. According to a 2016 report from the Centre for International Economics (CIE) the cost of diabetes alone is as high as $14 billion per year with no sign of abatement. The percentage of Australians with diagnosed with diabetes has tripled between 1990 and 2015.

And it’s a pattern replicated in other western societies. According to the Mayo Clinic in the United States, one in six American children is obese, while obesity in children aged 2-5 has grown from 9% to 14% over just a four-year period. Shockingly, children are now regularly presenting to medical professionals with type 2 diabetes, sleep apnoea, and fatty liver disease.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), worldwide obesity almost doubled between 1980 and 2008. But obesity doesn’t function as an outlier, where there are healthy people and a small percentage that are obese, but rather is part of a dietary continuum.

According to the same WHO report, over 50% of adults in the European Region are overweight, with 23% of women and 20% of men obese.

While exercise is undoubtedly important for our muscles and cardiovascular fitness, the increase in childhood obesity – including amongst babies who are not yet able to exercise – is like the canary in the coalmine, indicating that diet is the major contributing factor to being overweight and being at risk of developing chronic disease.

The abundance of high-sugar and high-carb food on offer, the decreasingly physical nature of work, and the paucity of time available for exercise means the calories from these foods are increasingly hard to burn off and being stored as fat. To burn off the calories of a donut, for example, a 150-pound person needs to run for 30 minutes or walk for 90.

The HbA1c test, which measures the glucose level of haemoglobin, allows pathologists to detect and monitor diabetes or prediabetes at an early stage. With early detection of elevated blood sugar, people are able to halt the progression of diabetes or even to reverse it.

Because of our ready access to sugary foods or those with high carbohydrate content, conditions like diabetes are reaching alarming proportions. The CIE report states that 1.5 million Australians currently live with diagnosed diabetes, with a further 500,000 having undiagnosed diabetes. As with obesity, diabetes is part of a continuum with many hundreds of thousands more most likely at prediabetes stage.

As a major cause of kidney disease, heart attack, eye disease and amputation, diabetes is a peculiarly modern, man-mad scourge, requiring human engineered solutions, such as the HbA1c test.

Not only does that mean better health outcomes, but better economic ones. The CIE report suggests that treatment costs for diabetes can be halved if detected early through the HbA1c test.

For more information on how pathology testing saves money and lives visit knowpathology.com.au

The post Is health in the western world at the bottom of a nasty J-curve? first appeared on Know Pathology Know Healthcare.

His last year was full of transition – personally and professionally.

In April 2017, Jaybee experienced an excruciating pain in his neck that lasted for days resulting in sleepless nights. One night, he couldn’t bear the pain anymore and had to rush into the emergency department of Blacktown Mount Druitt Hospital at 3:00 am.

After conducting some tests, doctors found swelling in his oral cavity and recommended an overnight stay for observation. Jaybee was discharged the next day.

A few days later, he received a letter from Blacktown Hospital telling him that his pathology tests revealed pre-diabetes. It was recommended that he visit his GP for advice and lifestyle modification to prevent the onset of diabetes.

“My mother has diabetes and other relatives in the Philippines have diabetes. Still, I never thought that I would get diagnosed with pre-diabetes”.

I asked myself – ‘How could a stiff neck be a sign of diabetes?’ – There’s no relation at all. However, the same crippling experience of stiff neck led me to the emergency department and thankfully made me aware of my diabetes risk”.

A Registered Nurse by profession, Jaybee attended hospital with a totally unrelated health condition.  However, at Blacktown Hospital routine diabetes screening is performed for anyone over 18 presenting to the emergency department and this is what led to Jaybee’s early warning.

Early detection and early treatment of diabetes reduces the risk of complications and can save the health system billions.

“The diagnosis was a turning point in my life,” said Jaybee.

He met his GP and created a goal for a healthier lifestyle.

“Our current environment is full of triggers that entice us to eat unhealthily. Sugar is sneaky, and we are surrounded by inexpensive, ready-to-eat, tasty and high calorie foods. Before all this happened, I used to consume whatever was affordable and convenient”.

“Sticking to a healthy lifestyle wasn’t easy. It required me to find new ways to eat healthier. I would stack-up fruits and vegetables, so they are easily available. Still, if you put a doughnut in front of me – I really don’t like my chances!”

Jaybee found creative ways for maintaining his healthy lifestyle, he began more mindful eating and became physically active. With all his efforts, he has managed to change his test results.

Today, he helps other people to make the right health decisions and tackle diabetes as a diabetes educator at Blacktown Mount Druitt Hospital.

He ushered in his 34^th birthday at the Detecting Diabetes event run by Pathology Awareness Australia and Diabetes Australia at Australian Parliament House. Jaybee shared his personal experience of dealing with pre-diabetes with an audience of politicians and staffers.

His message to everyone – “Our current food supply is saturated with sugar without us even knowing it. There is a public health crisis – the silent epidemic of diabetes. Early pathology screening is the first step in the right direction”.

The post “Early screening saved me” – and now Jaybee educates others on the risks of diabetes first appeared on Know Pathology Know Healthcare.

On 27 June, Diabetes Australia (DA) and Pathology Awareness Australia (PAA) organised a detecting diabetes event with the Parliamentary Friends of Diabetes to highlight the significant and looming health issue that is diabetes in Australia.

Currently there are 1.2 million Australians with diabetes, and an estimated 500,000 more living with silent, undiagnosed type 2 diabetes. Many people will live with diabetes for up to 7 years before diagnosis, but a delay in diagnosis can result in eye damage, kidney damage or cardiovascular problems.

As those attending the event discovered, while the looming epidemic of diabetes is cause for concern and action, the good news is that the HbA1c blood test allows health professionals to significantly reduce both the health and economic costs of type 2 diabetes.

A reduction of just 1% in HbA1c (glycated haemoglobin) levels reduces a person’s risk of kidney disease by 40%, eye disease by 43%, amputation by 21% and heart attack by 16%.[1]

Treating diabetes before complications costs an average of $4,025 per patient, while treatment for those with micro and macrovascular complications costs an average of $9,645 per patient.

But diabetes isn’t just about facts and figures. Jaybee Serrano, who flew from Sydney to Canberra for the parliamentary event on his 34^th birthday, is living proof of the value of the HbA1c test.

In early 2017, Jaybee visited Blacktown Hospital’s Emergency Department complaining of a stiff neck and received a HbA1c test. The results indicated Jaybee had pre-diabetes HbA1c levels, a shock for someone so young. After consultation with his GP, Jaybee managed to reverse its effects and now acts as a diabetes educator at Blacktown Mt Druitt Hospital.

But what was perhaps most alarming about the HbA1c testing conducted by Blacktown Mt Druitt Hospital was that Jaybee represented only the tip of the iceberg.

A trial program to test for diabetes began at Blacktown Mt Druitt Hospital in New South Wales in mid-2016. Anyone over the age of 18 presenting to the Emergency Department for other blood tests was also given an HbA1c test. The results were striking.

Between mid-2016 to January 2018, Blacktown Hospital tested 48,000 people and revealed that an astonishing 47% of those tested presented with pre-diabetes or diabetes. What was a trial has now become a permanent program at the hospital.

Speaking at the parliamentary event, Professor Greg Johnson of DA said:

“Type 2 diabetes costs Australia $4-$6 billion annually, but treatment costs can be halved if complications are avoided through early detection and management.”

Echoing those sentiments was the Federal Health Minister, Greg Hunt MP who praised the work being done by Diabetes Australia and the pathology sector to encourage early detection and enable preventative action.

Hosting the event with Graham Perrett MP was Rowan Ramsey MP, whose seat of Grey has the highest rate of diabetes in Australia.

Mr Perrett said; “Thank you to the 1700 pathologists and 35,000 scientists and laboratory staff, the quality of our pathology services in Australia really is fantastic.”

The Chair of Pathology Awareness Australia, John Crothers, says the effectiveness of diabetes testing is clear:

“There is nothing but upside to early detection of diabetes through pathology testing. With early detection, diabetes is at its most treatable as well as being at its most affordable from a health policy perspective.

“Seventy percent of medical decisions rely on pathology testing. It is at the front-line of prevention, detection and management of disease.”

[1] The economic value of pathology: achieving better health, and a better use of health resources (2018), The Centre for International Economics, p. 3

The post Politicians roll up their sleeves in Canberra as Diabetes Australia calls for wider blood testing to arrest Australian diabetes epidemic first appeared on Know Pathology Know Healthcare.