Life expectancy rises, health problems follow suit Living longer: Australia now ranks fifth in the world for life expectancy, but poor lifestyle choices are said to constitute a major threat to health. Australians are living longer but with increasing levels of chronic and disabling conditions such as back pain, depression, obesity and anxiety. A study of disease burden has found a child born today can expect to live until almost 84 (for girls) and nearly 80 (boys). This compares with 80 and 74 respectively in 1990. Australia is now ranked fifth in the world for life expectancy. But the data extracted from the global burden of diseases study revealed obesity and its related conditions were still a big burden on health costs. A founder of the study and laureate professor, Alan Lopez, said these conditions would become more prevalent as the population aged unless strong prevention strategies were implemented. "We can thank two decades of public health campaigns for driving down premature deaths from road injury, sudden infant death syndrome and tobacco," Professor Lopez, from the University of Melbourne, said. But poor lifestyle choices constitute a major threat to health, with the number of years of health lost due to obesity, alcohol and drug use all increasing. The No. 1 risk factor for disease was diet, followed by high-body mass index, the study of health trends across 187 countries found. Heart disease, largely caused by poor diet, remains the leading cause of death and disability in the country, while the impact of drugs and depression is also on the rise. Alzheimer's disease has increased by 170 per cent since 1990. Lower-back pain, depressive disorders, neck pain, falls and anxiety are all in the top 10 causes of disease burden. A principal research fellow with the University of Sydney's Boden institute of obesity, Tim Gill, said strong prevention campaigns and political leadership were now needed. "We have come to expect some sort of technological research breakthrough to solve all health problems but clearly this won't be the case with obesity and its associated chronic conditions," he said. Chronic illnesses were also more likely to lead to depression, beyondblue chief executive Kate Carnell said. "We're getting an escalation of these conditions when people are also supposed to be at their most productive, between 20 and 50," she said. The findings were timely as negotiations around the national disability insurance scheme take place, Carers NSW chief executive Elena Katrakis said.