Prevalence of diabetes in rural Victoria
Section snippets
Materials and methods
Households were randomly selected from residential address lists, stratified to provide half from the regional center and a sixth from each Shire Capital. Household leafleting and media releases took place to maximise local awareness of the study. Household visits occurred between June 2001 and March 2003 with revisits (including evenings and weekends) until a response was received. A census of household residents, including questions relating to known diabetes were completed for all occupants
Results
The response to the initial census was 70.3%, with 61.3% (n = 1454) of these attending the “clinic”. Proportions by gender and ethnicity and prevalence of known diabetes, were similar in the census and those attending the “clinic”. Those refusing to attend the undiagnosed disease study were younger (49 ± 18 years versus 53 ± 16 years, p < 0.001). Table 1 shows the age-specific, crude and age-standardised prevalences by gender. The age-standardised prevalence of diabetes was 8.7% (men) and 7.5% (women).
Discussion
We have found that while the high prevalence of diabetes among Australian adults also exists in these small rural towns (consistent with rates found in AusDiab [1], Europe [9], [10] and the US [11]), the proportion with undiagnosed diabetes was lower. We originally expected more undiagnosed diabetes with the poorer access to primary care and find this result difficult to explain. Whether rural-urban differences in turnover of GPs, GP attitudes, awareness of diabetes in the general population or
Acknowledgements
We thank the crossroads team for their work and the local communities for their support. Contributors: DS conceived and designed the study and analysed the data. AM and SE managed the study. All authors interpreted the data and wrote the paper. Source of funding: The International Diabetes Institute and the University of Melbourne. The Department of Rural Health is funded under the Department of Health and Ageing Rural Health programme. Competing interests: None.
References (14)
- et al.
The prevalence of glucose intolerance in Aborigines and Europids of south-eastern Australia
Diabetes Res. Clin. Pract.
(1992) - et al.
Inequitable distribution of general practitioners in Australia: estimating need through the Robin Hood Index
Aust. NZ J. Publ. Health
(2000) - et al.
The rising prevalence of diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance: the Australian diabetes obesity and lifestyle study
Diabetes Care
(2002) - et al.
Diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance: a prevalence estimate based on the Busselton 1981 survey
Med. J. Aust.
(1985) Victorian Population Health Survey 2001 Selected Findings
(2002)- K.G.M.M. Alberti, P.Z. Zimmet, WHO consultation, definition, diagnosis and classification of diabetes mellitus and its...
- American Diabetes Association, Diagnosis and classification of diabetes mellitus. Diabetes Care 27 (Suppl. 1) (2004)...
Cited by (23)
The diagnosis and management of diabetes in Australia: Does the “Rule of Halves” apply?
2020, Diabetes Research and Clinical PracticeCitation Excerpt :From these, 123 studies met the inclusion criteria and were included in the review (Supplementary File 2). Nine sources of data were included [3,20–27], of which four reported diagnosed diabetes in the Indigenous (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) community (Supplementary File 3, Table 1) [24–27]. All were cohort studies of individuals aged ≥ 15 years.
Changes in prevalence of diabetes over 15 years in a rural Australian population: The Crossroads Studies
2020, Diabetes Research and Clinical PracticeCitation Excerpt :Ethics was granted by the Goulburn Valley Research Ethics Committee (GVH20/16). Households were randomly selected from residential address lists from local government organisations in the Goulburn Valley [12]. In Crossroads-II, additional households were randomly selected from housing developments since 2000.
Increased red cell count in diabetes and pre-diabetes
2010, Diabetes Research and Clinical PracticeCitation Excerpt :We wondered if other pre-diabetic states also had an increased RCC. The “Crossroads study” was carried out between June 2001 and March 2003 across seven Australian towns as previously described [8–10]. Briefly, an initial census of 2376 randomly selected households (half in the regional centre, a twelfth in each of the six smaller towns) was undertaken.
Management of chronic pain in a rural Australian setting: Findings from the Crossroads-II mixed‑methods study
2024, Australian Journal of General PracticePrevalence of atrial fibrillation in a regional Victoria setting, findings from the crossroads studies (2001–2003 and 2016–2018)
2023, Australian Journal of Rural Health