Diabetes Mellitus

PDHPE SPEECH

Good morning/afternoon Miss White and fellow students, today I’m up here to talk to you about diabetes.

Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease which occurs when there is an imbalance of insulin production which causes a disruption in the sugar level in the bloodstream. There are three main types diabetes of which are

• Type 1
• Type 2
• Gestational

Type 1 diabetes is caused by the body’s auto-immune system which is activated to kill particular cells in the pancreas which produce insulin. This type of diabetes is manageable through the use of insulin injections but there is no cure for type 1 diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes is a lifestyle disease associated with the insufficient production of insulin by the pancreas as well as the ability of the insulin produced to convert glucose into energy.  Type 2 diabetes can be related to lifestyle choices such as unhealthy diet and an inactive lifestyle.

Gestational diabetes is a type of diabetes that affects pregnant women and disappears when she has given birth.

EXTENT

The prevalence or incidence of diabetes is on an increase in Australia, statistics has shown that the prevalence of diabetes has risen from 2% in 2001 to 3.5% in 2004-2005 and up to 4% in 2007-2008.  Statistics gathered by the National Health Survey conducted in 2007-2008 indicated that around 818,200 Australians reported having diabetes in which 80% of diabetics have been type 2 diabetes. The diabetes rates among the ATSI group is said to be around 10-30% of the population. X                 

This graph shows the mortality rates for diabetes between 1980 and 2007, it compares the death rates between both males and females. As you can see that mortality rates for males are much higher than compared with females.

Risk and Protective Factors

Just like every other disease diabetes has its risk and protective factor which individuals can control and change to minimise their chances of getting diabetes.  Some of these risk factors are: … some risk factors that can’t not be changed and individuals have no control over, some of which are: … And it also has its protective factors which are: …

Determinants

Socio-cultural-

Groups at risk

The main groups of people who are a risk of diabetes are the aboriginal Torre strait islanders, people born in overseas country and people with a family history of the diabetes. Aboriginal and Torre strait islander group are more at risk of diabetes due to a lot of reasons. The main reasons as to why they are more at risk are that most of the ATSI group are geographically disadvantaged because they are located in rural and remote areas which has very little access to health services. Since they don’t have proper access to health services in their area, it means that they have to travel long distances to get to a medical facility which can be costly to people in which case they choose not to go. This is the reason as to why the ATSI group is 3 times more like to get diabetes and 18 times more likely to die from the disease than the rest of the population.