State of Metabolic Health in Australia 2026: Evidence Report

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Australia's metabolic health crisis has reached a threshold that demands systematic documentation. This reference report consolidates the best available evidence on obesity, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and cardiometabolic risk in Australia as of 2026. It is intended as a citable resource for researchers, journalists, policy analysts, and parliamentary staff engaged with metabolic health policy.

The evidence reviewed here spans population surveys, AIHW burden of disease analyses, ABS National Health Survey data, Diabetes Australia reports, and peer-reviewed epidemiology. Where data is still emerging or contested, this is noted. Where specific figures cannot be independently verified against primary sources, estimates are presented as ranges with appropriate caveats.

Executive Summary: Headline Numbers

Australia's metabolic health burden in 2026 is characterised by high prevalence across multiple overlapping conditions, widening equity gaps, and a policy environment only beginning to catch up with the scale of the challenge.

| Indicator | Estimate | Primary Source | |---|---|---| | Adults overweight or obese | ~67% | ABS National Health Survey 2022 | | Adults with obesity (BMI ≥30) | ~31% | ABS National Health Survey 2022 | | Children overweight or obese (5–17 yrs) | ~25% | AIHW Australia's Health 2024 | | Australians living with type 2 diabetes | ~1.3 million | AIHW Diabetes snapshot 2024 | | Annual new type 2 diabetes diagnoses | ~45,700 | AIHW Diabetes snapshot 2024 | | Adults meeting metabolic syndrome criteria | ~28–35% | AusDiab cohort projections | | Annual health expenditure on diabetes | ~$4.4 billion | AIHW Disease Expenditure 2023 | | Annual economic cost of overweight/obesity | ~$18 billion | Deloitte Access Economics modelling | | Indigenous Australians with diabetes | ~3× general rate | AIHW Indigenous health performance framework |

These numbers are not abstractions. They represent cumulative biological and social disadvantage playing out across millions of lives, compounding year on year in the absence of structural reform.

Key conclusions of this report:

Obesity and metabolic disease prevalence has continued to rise despite two decades of public health messaging
Equity gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, and between low and high socioeconomic groups, have not meaningfully narrowed
The PBS listing of GLP-1 receptor agonists for weight management represents the most significant pharmacotherapy development in a decade, but access barriers remain
Parliamentary inquiries into menopause, dental health, and mental health have produced reform recommendations with direct metabolic health implications
Economic modelling projects health system costs will grow substantially to 2030 without upstream intervention

Obesity Prevalence in Australia 2026

Adult Obesity

The Australian Bureau of Statistics 2022 National Health Survey — the most recent nationally representative body measurement data available — found that approximately 67% of Australian adults aged 18 and over were classified as overweight or obese, with 31.3% meeting the threshold for obesity (BMI ≥30 kg/m²). This represents a continuation of a three-decade upward trend. In 1995, the ABS measured obesity prevalence at around 19% of adults; by 2007–08 it was 24.8%, and by 2017–18 it had reached 31.3%.

Source: ABS National Health Survey 2022

Obesity prevalence is not uniform across age groups. The highest rates are observed in adults aged 55–64 and 45–54. Men have higher rates of overweight than women in most age brackets, but women aged 18–24 show increasing rates compared to earlier survey waves.

Children and Adolescents

Childhood and adolescent obesity is a critical pipeline indicator. According to AIHW's Australia's Health 2024 report, approximately one in four Australian children aged 5–17 were overweight or obese — around 25% — with about 8% meeting the threshold for obesity. Rates have remained relatively stable since the 2007–08 survey but have not declined, indicating that prevention programs have arrested but not reversed the trend.

Source: AIHW, Australia's Health 2024, Overweight and obesity

This matters for long-term projections: children with obesity carry substantially elevated risk of obesity in adulthood, and of early-onset type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular risk factor accumulation. The lifetime disease burden associated with childhood-onset obesity is substantially higher than that associated with adult-onset.

State and Territory Variation

National averages mask significant jurisdictional variation. The ABS 2022 survey and AIHW reporting indicate that obesity prevalence is highest in the Northern Territory (where rates among Indigenous and remote communities are substantially elevated) and in Tasmania and South Australia, and lowest in the Australian Capital Territory and Victoria. Urban–rural differences within states are frequently larger than interstate differences: remote and very remote Australians have obesity rates roughly 1.3 times those of major city residents.

Socioeconomic Gradient

Obesity rates in Australia follow a clear socioeconomic gradient. Adults in the lowest socioeconomic quintile have obesity prevalence approximately 1.5 to 1.8 times that of adults in the highest quintile. This gradient is observed for both BMI-defined obesity and for more nuanced metabolic markers such as waist circumference and visceral adiposity.

The AIHW's Social Determinants of Health analysis notes that this gradient operates through multiple pathways: food environment (access to fresh, affordable food versus energy-dense, nutrient-poor food), built environment (walkability, access to recreational infrastructure), occupational exposure (sedentary work, shift work), stress and cortisol loading, and differential access to preventive healthcare.

Source: AIHW, Social Determinants of Health, 2023

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Populations

The obesity burden among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians is substantially higher than in the general population. The 2018–19 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey found that 67% of Indigenous adults were overweight or obese — comparable to the national adult figure — but with obesity alone (BMI ≥30) at 43%, compared to 31% in the general adult population. Diabetes prevalence runs at approximately three times the national rate.

Source: ABS National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey 2018–19

These figures must be contextualised within the social determinants of Indigenous health: dispossession, intergenerational trauma, geographic remoteness, lower access to healthcare infrastructure, and historical policy failures continue to shape metabolic risk trajectories that individual-level interventions cannot adequately address without structural change.

Type 2 Diabetes: Prevalence, Incidence, and Cost

Prevalence

Approximately 1.3 million Australians were living with diabetes — predominantly type 2 — as of the most recent AIHW data. This figure, drawn from National Diabetes Services Scheme (NDSS) registration data, captures those who have been diagnosed and are actively managed. A further substantial population of undiagnosed cases exists: the AIHW's National Health Measures Survey estimated that approximately 6.5% of Australians had diabetes of any type when biomarker data was included, suggesting a meaningful gap between diagnosed and actual prevalence.

Source: AIHW, Diabetes snapshot 2024

For deeper analysis of type 2 diabetes epidemiology and the evidence base for pharmacological intervention, see our companion article on type 2 diabetes in Australia: prevalence, cost and policy.

Incidence

The AIHW Diabetes snapshot 2024 records approximately 45,700 new type 2 diabetes diagnoses in 2021 — approximately 125 new cases per day. Incidence rates are higher in older age groups, in lower socioeconomic quintiles, and among Indigenous Australians. Age-standardised incidence showed some stabilisation in the 2010s, but absolute case numbers have continued to climb as the population ages.

Healthcare Expenditure

Diabetes is among the most expensive conditions in the Australian health system. The AIHW's Health Expenditure Australia analysis estimates that direct health system expenditure attributable to diabetes was approximately $4.4 billion in the most recently reported financial year. This includes hospital costs (the largest component), PBS pharmaceutical expenditure, primary care, and allied health services. It does not fully capture the costs of treating diabetes-related complications — cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, retinopathy, peripheral neuropathy, and lower limb amputations — which substantially exceed the direct diabetes management figure.

Source: AIHW, Health Expenditure Australia

The indirect cost burden is also substantial: reduced workforce participation, early retirement, carer costs, and productivity loss add billions more to the economic impact.

Metabolic Syndrome and Cardiometabolic Risk

Metabolic syndrome — defined by the harmonised IDF/AHA/NHLBI criteria as any three of: elevated waist circumference, elevated triglycerides, low HDL cholesterol, elevated blood pressure, or elevated fasting glucose — affects an estimated 28–35% of Australian adults. The AusDiab study, a nationally representative longitudinal cohort, has been the primary Australian data source for metabolic syndrome prevalence tracking, with cross-sectional data suggesting rates approaching one in three adults.

For detailed analysis of metabolic syndrome policy, see our metabolic syndrome public health policy analysis.

Individuals with metabolic syndrome face approximately three times the cardiovascular disease risk and five times the type 2 diabetes risk of those without it. At the population scale, metabolic syndrome is the underlying mechanistic driver of much of Australia's chronic disease burden — the condition beneath the conditions.

Cardiovascular Metabolic Risk

Cardiovascular disease remains Australia's leading single cause of death. The Heart Foundation estimates that cardiovascular disease causes around 18,000 deaths annually in Australia and costs the health system approximately $13.4 billion each year in direct costs.

Source: Heart Foundation, Heart disease in Australia, 2023

The metabolic contributors to cardiovascular risk — hypertension, dyslipidaemia, insulin resistance, central adiposity, chronic low-grade inflammation — are precisely the components of metabolic syndrome. Addressing metabolic syndrome is therefore not a peripheral health system concern but a direct cardiovascular prevention strategy.

Hypertension affects approximately one in three Australian adults. Dyslipidaemia is similarly prevalent. In many cases, these conditions co-exist with central obesity and impaired glucose regulation without any of them being addressed as part of a coherent metabolic risk reduction strategy. The RACGP's absolute cardiovascular risk framework — which asks clinicians to calculate 5-year CVD risk using combined risk factors rather than treating each factor in isolation — represents the right clinical paradigm, but its implementation in routine general practice remains inconsistent.

Source: RACGP, Guidelines for the management of absolute cardiovascular disease risk, 2023

Equity Gaps: Where the Burden Falls Hardest

Socioeconomic Status Gradient

The SES gradient in metabolic disease is among the most robustly documented patterns in Australian health data. It operates across the full causal chain: greater exposure to metabolic risk factors, lower access to preventive care, higher rates of undiagnosed disease, reduced access to effective treatment, and worse outcomes once disease is established.

AIHW reporting documents that Australians in the lowest socioeconomic quintile:

Are approximately 1.5–1.8 times more likely to have obesity than those in the highest quintile
Have diabetes rates approximately twice as high as the highest quintile
Experience earlier onset of cardiovascular disease
Have substantially lower use of preventive health services despite higher disease burden

These disparities are not reducible to individual behaviour. They reflect structural conditions — food environment, built environment, occupational risk, healthcare access, income stress — that require structural responses.

The Indigenous Health Gap

The health gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians and the non-Indigenous population in metabolic health indicators remains wide. The AIHW's Indigenous health performance framework reports:

Diabetes prevalence approximately 3.3 times the non-Indigenous rate
Cardiovascular disease mortality 2–3 times the non-Indigenous rate in most age groups
Lower rates of PBS medicine access for cardiometabolic conditions despite higher disease burden

Source: AIHW, Indigenous Health Performance Framework, 2023

The Closing the Gap framework identifies diabetes and cardiovascular disease as priority target areas, but progress on the metabolic health targets has been the slowest of any domain. Structural reform — including culturally safe primary care, community-controlled health services, and upstream food and housing policy — is a precondition for meaningful progress.

The Senate Community Affairs References Committee has heard extensive evidence on Indigenous health equity through multiple recent inquiries, and its recommendations consistently identify underfunding of community-controlled health organisations (ACCHOs) as a systemic barrier.

Source: Senate Community Affairs References Committee, 2024 inquiry reports

Regional and Remote Disadvantage

Australians in regional, remote, and very remote areas face compounded metabolic health disadvantage from geography, workforce shortage, and economic marginalisation. The AIHW reports that people in remote and very remote areas have:

Obesity rates approximately 1.3 times higher than major city residents
Substantially higher diabetes mortality rates
Significantly lower access to endocrinologists, dietitians, exercise physiologists, and specialist diabetes educators

Telehealth reform has improved access to some specialist services since 2020, but it has not resolved the shortage of primary care providers in remote areas — the fundamental gatekeeper for metabolic health management.

Pharmacotherapy Landscape 2026

PBS-Listed GLP-1 Receptor Agonists

The pharmacotherapy landscape for metabolic disease in Australia underwent its most significant shift in a decade with the PBS listing of semaglutide for type 2 diabetes management, and the subsequent TGA approval and PBS listing of higher-dose semaglutide (Wegovy) for chronic weight management in eligible adults with BMI ≥30, or ≥27 with at least one weight-related comorbidity.

As of 2026, PBS-listed GLP-1 receptor agonists for type 2 diabetes management include:

Semaglutide (Ozempic) — weekly subcutaneous injection
Dulaglutide (Trulicity) — weekly subcutaneous injection
Exenatide (Byetta, Bydureon) — twice daily or weekly formulations
Liraglutide (Victoza) — daily subcutaneous injection

Tirzepatide (Mounjaro) — a dual GIP/GLP-1 receptor agonist — received TGA approval for type 2 diabetes in Australia. Its PBS listing trajectory for both diabetes and weight management is subject to ongoing PBAC deliberation.

Source: TGA, Prescription medicines: registration of new chemical entities in Australia, 2023–24

The GLP-1 receptor agonist class has demonstrated efficacy beyond glycaemic control. Clinical trial data for semaglutide (the SUSTAIN and STEP trial programs) and tirzepatide (SURPASS and SURMOUNT programs) show substantial reductions in body weight, improved cardiometabolic markers, and — critically for cardiovascular risk — significant reduction in major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) in high-risk populations. The SELECT trial (semaglutide 2.4 mg in non-diabetic adults with cardiovascular disease and BMI ≥27) demonstrated a 20% reduction in MACE compared with placebo.

Access Barriers and Equity Concerns

PBS listing for weight management (as opposed to diabetes management) introduced significant criteria-based access constraints. Adults with obesity but without type 2 diabetes must meet strict clinical eligibility criteria, and current PBS arrangements require prescribing by a specialist rather than by a GP. This creates access barriers that disproportionately affect low-SES and regional patients — precisely those with the highest disease burden.

The RACGP and Obesity Australia have both called for expanded GP prescribing authority and broader eligibility criteria, arguing that the current framework does not reflect the evidence on obesity as a chronic relapsing disease requiring broad population-level treatment access.

Shortages of semaglutide supply through 2023–24 created further disruption, prioritising supply for type 2 diabetes patients and creating access uncertainty for those using the medication for weight management.

Emerging Pharmacotherapy

Tirzepatide's full PBS listing for weight management, if approved, would represent a further expansion of the pharmacotherapy toolkit. Retatrutide — a GIP/GLP-1/glucagon triple agonist — remains in Phase 3 trials internationally and is not yet TGA-approved but is generating significant research interest for its potential to achieve greater weight loss than current dual agonists.

For a detailed evidence review of tirzepatide and the dual agonist mechanism, see our analysis of tirzepatide and dual receptor agonism.

The compounding pharmacy sector has also been active in this space. The TGA issued updated guidance on compounded GLP-1 receptor agonists in 2024, tightening quality standards and restricting supply to licensed compounding pharmacies with demonstrated manufacturing capability.

Source: TGA, Guidance on compounded GLP-1 medicines, 2024

Policy Reforms 2024–2026

Senate Inquiries Relevant to Metabolic Health

The 47th and 48th Australian Parliaments produced a cluster of Senate committee inquiries with direct relevance to metabolic health. Three are especially significant:

Inquiry into Menopause and Perimenopause (2024) The Senate Community Affairs References Committee inquiry into menopause and perimenopause — tabled in 2024 — documented the metabolic health consequences of the hormonal transition, including increased central adiposity, elevated cardiovascular risk, accelerated progression to type 2 diabetes, and the systematic underfunding of evidence-based hormonal and metabolic management. The committee recommended expanded Medicare rebates for menopause specialists, improved training for GPs in metabolic consequences of menopause, and recognition of menopause as a distinct clinical entity in chronic disease management planning.

Source: Senate Community Affairs References Committee, Menopause and perimenopause inquiry, 2024

Inquiry into Dental and Oral Health (2023–24) The Senate inquiry into public dental health produced recommendations for expanded Medicare dental coverage, with particular attention to the metabolic health consequences of poor oral health. Periodontal disease is an independent risk factor for type 2 diabetes complications and cardiovascular disease; the inquiry heard evidence on bidirectional links between oral inflammation, systemic inflammation, and metabolic dysregulation.

Source: Senate Community Affairs References Committee, Provision of and Access to Dental Services in Australia

Mental Health and Suicide Prevention The Senate Select Committee on Mental Health highlighted the metabolic consequences of psychiatric medication — particularly atypical antipsychotics — as a major but systematically underfunded area of physical health monitoring. Serious mental illness is associated with 15–20 year reductions in life expectancy, predominantly from cardiovascular and metabolic disease, yet cardiometabolic monitoring and treatment for people with serious mental illness is poorly resourced in Australia's mental health system.

Source: Australian Government, The National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan

Preventive Health Funding

Federal budget allocations for preventive health have remained a persistent point of contention in Australian health policy. Australia spends approximately 1.7–2% of total health expenditure on prevention — below the OECD average of around 3%, and below the level that evidence suggests is cost-effective given the downstream treatment costs of preventable chronic disease.

The National Preventive Health Strategy 2021–2030 has produced incremental reforms: expanded health assessments under MBS Item 715 (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health assessments), extended GP telehealth items, and investment in population-level prevention programs. However, the structural underfunding of prevention relative to treatment has not been addressed at a scale commensurate with the burden.

Source: Australian Government, National Preventive Health Strategy 2021–2030

For a detailed policy analysis of preventive health investment, see our preventive health funding and policy reform analysis.

Economic Projections to 2030

Current Burden Estimates

Deloitte Access Economics modelling — commissioned by Diabetes Australia and referenced in successive AIHW reports — estimated the total economic cost of overweight and obesity in Australia at approximately $18 billion per year. This figure combines direct health system costs with indirect productivity costs including reduced workforce participation, absenteeism, and early retirement due to obesity-related disability.

Source: Diabetes Australia, Diabetes in Australia 2024 report

2030 Trajectory

Without meaningful intervention in obesity prevalence trajectories, modelling projects that:

Type 2 diabetes prevalence will reach approximately 1.8–2 million Australians by 2030, driven by demographic ageing and continued metabolic risk accumulation in younger cohorts
Annual direct health expenditure on diabetes alone will approach $6–7 billion
Total economic cost of overweight and obesity (direct + indirect) could exceed $25 billion

These projections are sensitive to assumptions about PBS medicine uptake and any accompanying shift in disease trajectory. If GLP-1 receptor agonist therapy is extended to a substantial proportion of high-risk individuals, modelling suggests a potential for meaningful reduction in diabetes incidence, cardiovascular events, and hospitalisation — though the long-term fiscal impact of broad PBS access at current medicine prices creates its own budget pressure.

The AIHW's burden of disease analysis projects that metabolic disorders will account for an increasing share of total disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) to 2030, with type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease among the top five contributors.

Source: AIHW, Australian Burden of Disease Study 2023

Reform Recommendations

The evidence reviewed in this report supports the following policy recommendations, each grounded in the literature and international practice benchmarks:

1. Establish a National Metabolic Health Strategy

Australia lacks a unified national strategy that addresses obesity, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and cardiovascular metabolic risk as an interconnected cluster. A National Metabolic Health Strategy — modelled on the existing National Diabetes Strategy but expanded in scope — would provide the coordination architecture for surveillance, prevention, treatment access, and equity targets across federal and state health systems.

2. Expand PBS Access for Weight Management Pharmacotherapy

Current PBS eligibility criteria for GLP-1 receptor agonists for weight management are more restrictive than the clinical evidence base warrants. The PBAC and the Department of Health and Aged Care should review eligibility thresholds and prescribing authority arrangements to:

Enable GP prescribing without specialist referral for patients meeting clinical criteria
Expand eligibility to BMI ≥30 or ≥27 with metabolic comorbidity across a broader definition of comorbidity
Ensure Closing the Gap PBS co-payment support is actively applied to weight management medicines for eligible Indigenous Australians

3. Fund Population-Level Dietary and Built Environment Reform

Pharmacotherapy addresses metabolic dysregulation at the biological level but does not change the food environments and built environments that drive metabolic risk accumulation. Effective metabolic health policy requires parallel investment in:

Sugar-sweetened beverage levies (with revenue hypothecated to health promotion)
Mandatory adoption of the front-of-pack health star rating
Urban planning requirements for walkability and active transport infrastructure
Community food access programs in low-income urban and remote areas

4. Invest in Culturally Safe Primary Care for Indigenous Australians

No metabolic health strategy will close the Indigenous health gap without substantially increased investment in Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations (ACCHOs). The evidence base for community-controlled models as the most effective pathway to sustained health improvement in Indigenous communities is strong; the gap between evidence and funding allocation remains wide.

5. Mandate Cardiometabolic Monitoring for Mental Health Patients

People receiving atypical antipsychotics and other metabolically active psychiatric medications should have standardised, funded cardiometabolic monitoring as part of their mental health care plan. The evidence on excess mortality from metabolic and cardiovascular disease in serious mental illness is not contested; the structural failure to fund monitoring and metabolic intervention in this population is a policy choice that should be reversed.

6. Increase Preventive Health Expenditure to OECD Average

Raising preventive health expenditure from approximately 1.7% to the OECD average of approximately 3% of total health expenditure would create fiscal space for the population-level interventions that reduce the downstream treatment burden. The economic case — modelled in multiple peer-reviewed cost-effectiveness analyses — is robust.

7. Improve Metabolic Health Surveillance Infrastructure

National metabolic health surveillance requires more frequent biomarker-based data collection than the current survey cycle supports. The ABS National Health Measures Survey, which includes objective metabolic biomarkers, should be conducted on a regular rolling basis rather than as an infrequent cross-sectional exercise. Real-time or near-real-time population metabolic surveillance — using linked administrative data from PBS, NDSS, and Medicare — would enable much more responsive policy targeting.

Limitations of This Report

This report draws on the best available population-level data as of early 2026. Key limitations:

Most large-scale prevalence data (ABS NHS, AIHW analyses) reflects 2021–22 collection; the metabolic burden may have shifted since
Metabolic syndrome prevalence estimates derive from extrapolation of AusDiab cohort data rather than a nationally representative cross-sectional biomarker survey
Economic cost estimates involve modelling assumptions that carry uncertainty, particularly regarding indirect productivity costs
State-level breakdowns for most metabolic indicators are less reliable than national estimates due to sample size constraints in national surveys
The impact of GLP-1 receptor agonist market entry on population-level metabolic trajectories will not be detectable in surveillance data for several years

These limitations do not undermine the broad picture: the metabolic health burden in Australia is large, unequally distributed, growing, and amenable to evidence-based intervention that current policy frameworks do not adequately support.

References and Primary Sources

ABS National Health Survey 2022 — adult overweight/obesity prevalence (~67% overweight or obese; 31.3% obese) https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/health/health-conditions-and-risks/national-health-survey/2022
AIHW, Australia's Health 2024 — childhood overweight/obesity prevalence (~25% of children aged 5–17) https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-health/australias-health-2024-data-insights/contents/overweight-and-obesity
AIHW, Diabetes snapshot 2024 — type 2 diabetes prevalence (~1.3 million NDSS registrants); incidence (~45,700 new diagnoses 2021) https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/diabetes/diabetes-snapshot
AIHW, Health Expenditure Australia — diabetes direct health expenditure (~$4.4 billion) https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/health-welfare-expenditure/health-expenditure-australia
AIHW, Indigenous Health Performance Framework 2023 — Indigenous diabetes prevalence (~3× non-Indigenous rate); cardiovascular mortality gaps https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/indigenous-australians/indigenous-health-performance-framework
ABS National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey 2018–19 — Indigenous adult obesity (43%); overweight/obese (67%) https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/health/health-conditions-and-risks/national-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-health-survey/latest-release
Heart Foundation, Heart Disease in Australia 2023 — cardiovascular disease mortality (~18,000 deaths/year); direct cost (~$13.4 billion) https://www.heartfoundation.org.au/heart-disease-in-australia
RACGP, Guidelines for Assessment of Absolute Cardiovascular Disease Risk 2023 — absolute CVD risk framework for combined metabolic risk factor management https://www.racgp.org.au/clinical-resources/clinical-guidelines/key-racgp-guidelines/view-all-racgp-guidelines/guidelines-for-the-assessment-of-cardiovascular-risk
AIHW, Australian Burden of Disease Study 2023 — DALYs projection; metabolic disorders trajectory to 2030 https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/burden-of-disease/australian-burden-of-disease-study-2023
Diabetes Australia, Diabetes in Australia 2024 — total economic cost estimate (~$18 billion/year including indirect costs) https://www.diabetesaustralia.com.au/about-diabetes/diabetes-in-australia/
TGA, Guidance on compounded GLP-1 medicines, 2024 — regulatory framework for compounded semaglutide and tirzepatide https://www.tga.gov.au/resources/resource/guidance/guidance-compounded-glp-1-medicines
Senate Community Affairs References Committee, Menopause and perimenopause inquiry, 2024 — metabolic consequences of menopause; Medicare reform recommendations https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Community_Affairs/Menopause
Australian Government, National Preventive Health Strategy 2021–2030 — prevention investment framework; strategic targets https://www.health.gov.au/resources/publications/national-preventive-health-strategy-2021-2030
AIHW, Social Determinants of Health, 2023 — SES gradient in obesity and metabolic disease; food/built environment pathways https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-health/social-determinants-of-health
TGA, Prescription medicines: registration of new chemical entities in Australia, 2023–24 — TGA approval history for GLP-1 medicines including tirzepatide https://www.tga.gov.au/resources/publication/publications/prescription-medicines-registration-new-chemical-entities-australia

About This Report

This report was prepared by the Coalition for Better Health as an open-access reference resource. All data has been drawn from publicly available primary sources. Figures are cited with source links; where modelling or projection data is referenced, the underlying assumptions are noted. This document is updated as significant new data becomes available.

The Coalition for Better Health is an independent health policy and advocacy organisation. This report does not constitute medical advice. The Coalition has no commercial relationships with pharmaceutical manufacturers. No personal identifiers of any kind have been included in this report.

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