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Aussies struggle to spot diabetes signs

Written By Unknown on Minggu, 14 Juli 2013 | 23.47

EDS: NOT FOR USE BEFORE 0001 (AEST) MONDAY JULY 15

SYDNEY, July 15 AAP - It's the country's fastest-growing disease, but most Australians don't recognise all the symptoms of diabetes, a new survey shows.

On the eve of National Diabetes Week, a Galaxy poll commissioned by the Medibank 24/7 Health Advice Line has found 97 per cent of Australians do not know all the major symptoms or how many types of the disease there are.

Almost one in five people polled did not recognise that obesity is a risk factor for diabetes, and two thirds did not realise the development of type 2 diabetes can be slowed through better diet and exercise, according to the research.

Australian Diabetes Council (ADC) CEO Nicola Stokes said key symptoms for type 1 diabetes, like excessive thirst, were well-recognised.

But some symptoms of type 2 diabetes were harder to spot.

"With type 2 you can just be tired, lethargic, and everything is becoming more difficult - and that's just our lives, these days," she told AAP.

She said new polling of ADC members showed diabetes was shaping up to be an election issue.

Overall, members ranked diabetes management as a top concern, ahead of the cost of living, work and employment or relationships.

"This is a cry for help that I think the government really needs to listen to," Ms Stokes said.

"They want the tools to manage their own condition but what they really want is to help their children, (who may be) predisposed to developing diabetes."

She's called on both sides of politics to direct more resources toward programs aimed at preventing diabetes.

The ADC says up to 60 per cent of type 2 diabetes cases are preventable, and the cost of treating an individual for diabetes complications could cost up to $16,700 a year.

One Australian is diagnosed with diabetes every five minutes, according to the ADC.

"If we don't contain these costs at the rate diabetes is growing, there won't be a health budget for anything else," Ms Stokes said.

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Financial stress increase for uni students

TWO in three of Australia's university students are living below the poverty line, a report says, as student debt soars.

The report from Universities Australia's longitudinal study of student finances, released on Monday, says more than two-thirds of students worry about their finances.

This is a big jump from when the last study was done in 2006, when only about half reported financial stress.

Two-thirds of undergraduates earned less than $20,000 a year, with about 21 per cent earning less than $10,000.

But their average annual expenditure was $37,020, with big increases in the housing, food and utility costs reported.

Almost one in five said they regularly couldn't afford food or other essential items while textbooks were the most difficult study-related expense to find room for in the budget.

A quarter of undergraduates had a loan of some kind, as did a third of post-graduate students.

And the estimated level of debt incurred from HECS and course fees jumped to $37,217 per student.

The levels of financial stress were even greater for students from low socio-economic (SES) backgrounds and indigenous students.

Only a third of indigenous students got some kind of support from their parents or partner, compared with just over half of their non-indigenous counterparts.

For all students, the most common type of family support was being fed, followed by getting use of a computer or printer.

"This report clearly shows that financial stress on university students is increasing," UA chief executive Belinda Robinson said.

"While the impact of this on dropout rates and future enrolments is unclear, it is of sufficient concern to justify close monitoring - particular in the context of meeting the government's goal to have 20 per cent of students from low SES backgrounds enrolled by 2020."

National Union of Students president Jade Tyrrell said student poverty had soared.

Students need more income support and it needs to be more flexible, waiting times need to be reduced and eligibility criteria relaxed, she said.

"A huge problem we face as students is that student poverty is seen as a right of passage almost and that needs to change," Ms Tyrrell told AAP.

The report also found the average student income was higher than in 2006 and students were more likely to have savings they could draw on in emergencies.

But it said the apparently contradictory findings pointed to an increasing polarisation between the "haves" and "have-nots".

"This would be unsurprising in view of the changes that have taken place in the sector since 2006, particularly the growth in participation by students who may not previously have been likely to enter higher education," the report states.

Universities Australia surveyed more than 11,700 students across a range of demographics for the study.

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Inflation poses awkward policy challenge

NEW Zealand's annual inflation rate probably returned to 14-year lows in the second quarter as a high currency reduced prices of imported clothing and competition drove down telecommunications costs.

The consumers price Index rose 0.3 per cent in the second quarter for an annual pace of 0.8 per cent, according to a Reuters survey of 10 economists ahead of the report's release on Tuesday.

The annual rate would match the level of the third quarter last year, which was the lowest since the final quarter of 1999, a year marked by nine months of deflation.

It would also give the central bank little reason to bring forward the timing of interest rate increases, even though it suspects inflation pressures are building in the housing market and from a Kiwi trade-weighted index that has tumbled from its second-quarter highs.

"The low annual pace of current inflation presents an awkward policy challenge for the RBNZ," said Nick Tuffley, chief economist at ASB.

"Continued downside inflation surprises may reduce the RBNZ's confidence of a lift in future inflation pressures," Mr Tuffley said.

Inflation is contained in the central bank's 1 per cent-to-3 per cent target range, and traders see no chance of a rise in the official cash rate of 2.5 per cent at the next review on July 25.

However, they see 47 basis points of hikes in the next 12 months - equivalent to about two quarter-point increases, based on the Overnight Index Swap curve.

Fuel costs rose to a record high this week but in the second quarter they fell.

Westpac senior economist Michael Gordon said the second quarter may be the last of persistently low inflation.

The Reserve Bank agrees. Its June monetary policy statement has inflation speeding to 0.6 per cent in the third quarter and an annual pace that increases to 1.1 per cent.