Clinical Diabetes and Epidemiology
Head – Jonathan Shaw
Epidemiology is the study of the occurrence of disease or other health related conditions or events in defined populations. The Epidemiology Unit at the Institute is working on various aspects of Diabetes epidemiology in populations living both in Australia and overseas.
The Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle Study (AusDiab) study is the largest Australian longitudinal population-based study examining the natural history of diabetes, pre-diabetes (in which glucose metabolism is impaired but not to the level to cause diabetes), heart disease and kidney disease. The 1999/2000 AusDiab study was the first National Diabetes prevalence study to be conducted in Australia, with the 11,247 participants having been invited back for testing once again in 2004/2005 to provide the first ever information about the incidence (or development) of diabetes and other non-communicable diseases in Australia over time.
AusDiab is a field survey involving both physical testing as well as questionnaires. A team of researchers went to each of the 42 randomly selected testing sites around Australia to individually test each of the 11,247 individuals who participated in the baseline study in 1999-2000. Six and a half thousand of these original participants came back to attend a similar survey five years later in 2004-2005. In addition, self-reported health information was obtained from more than 2000 of those who could not attend the survey site. Plans are underway for a 10-year follow-up of the AusDiab participants in 2009-10, allowing an unprecedented opportunity to map the changing impact that diabetes, heart disease and kidney disease have on the Australian population.
AusDiab was designed to be representative of the general Australian population aged over 25 years. Two sister studies to AusDiab, using similar testing methods, have also been conducted to examine the impact of diabetes and other non-communicable diseases among the Australian urban indigenous population (the DRUID study), and a rural Victorian population (the Crossroads study).
The AusDiab study is funded by the Federal Government through a National Health and Medical Research Council grant, as well as support from State governments, academic and industry partners. Numerous peer reviewed publications in international journals have resulted from the study, which continues to grow in stature in the eyes of the scientific community in Australia and abroad.
