Oral Presentation ANZOS-OSSANZ-AOCO Joint Annual Scientific Meeting 2017

The burden of inaction on socioeconomic differences in obesity among Australian adults (#51)

Emma Gearon 1 2 , Kathryn Backholer 2 , Anna Peeters 2
  1. School Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
  2. Global Obesity Centre, Deakin University, Geelong, VIC, Australia

Australian adults with greater socioeconomic disadvantage have a higher prevalence of obesity and a disproportionate share of incident and fatal cancers and cardio-metabolic diseases compared to those with lesser socioeconomic disadvantage. We aim to quantify the burden of five obesity-related cancers and cardio-metabolic diseases attributable to socioeconomic differences in obesity for those with greatest socioeconomic disadvantage and the total population.

For adults aged 20 to <85 years in 2016, stratified by SEIFA quintile (an area-level indicator of socioeconomic disadvantage which ranks individuals from most (SEIFA-1) to least (SEIFA-5) disadvantaged), we calculated the number of individuals with overweight (BMI ≥25 and <30 kg m-2) or obesity (BMI ≥30 kg m-2), incident diabetes, deaths from coronary heart disease (CHD) and cerebrovascular disease, and incident cases and deaths from colorectal cancer and breast cancer (women 50 to <85 years only) using most recent national estimates. We calculated the counterfactual number of cases or deaths for each disease expected to occur if all groups had the same overweight and obesity rates as observed for SEIFA-5 (37% overweight, 22% obese). These were compared to yield the burden attributable to socioeconomic differences in obesity.

In Australia in 2016, 15,372 cases of incident diabetes and cancer, and 705 deaths were attributable to inequalities in overweight and obesity. For those with greatest socioeconomic disadvantage (SEIFA-1) we estimate that 18.5% (6,442 cases) of incident diabetes and 7.3% (193 deaths) of CHD deaths could be avoided if overweight and obesity rates were the same as those with least socioeconomic disadvantage (SEIFA-5). In the total population we estimate that 12.0% (14,962 cases) of incident diabetes and 4.6% (482 deaths) of CHD deaths could be avoided.

Reducing socioeconomic inequalities in obesity would benefit those with greatest socioeconomic disadvantage and the total population, and must be prioritised in population level obesity policies.