Non-Infectious Disease
In 2022, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that coronary heart disease killed 18,590 Australians, more than any infectious disease, and not a single case was caused by a pathogen.
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Why do some diseases have no germs at all? Give an example you have heard of.
How might your lifestyle choices today affect your risk of disease in 30 years?
● Know
- Describe non-infectious diseases such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and obesity
● Understand
- Explain how lifestyle risk factors contribute to non-infectious disease
● Can do
- Evaluate how screening and prevention strategies reduce the risk of non-infectious disease
Reading data like a scientist means looking past the headline number to understand what it really represents. Incidence rate is the number of new cases divided by the population size, multiplied by a standard multiplier (usually 100,000). This adjustment lets you compare a town of 5,000 with a city of 500,000 fairly. Without this adjustment, raw counts are meaningless for comparison.
Case fatality rate shows how deadly a disease is, but only among people who are diagnosed. It does not tell you how likely you are to die if you are infected but asymptomatic, or how many people were never tested. Vaccine efficacy shows protection under ideal conditions, but real-world effectiveness may differ. Context, who was studied, where, and when, transforms a number from a soundbite into useful information.
City A reports 100 new COVID-19 cases. City B reports 50. City A seems worse. But City A has 1 million people; City B has 100,000. Incidence rate per 100,000: City A = 10, City B = 50. City B actually has a higher disease burden relative to its size.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, ABC News regularly published explainers on how to interpret case numbers, death rates, and vaccination statistics, a practical demonstration of data literacy for the general public.
A hypothesis is a testable prediction based on scientific reasoning. It is not a guess, and it is not a question. A good hypothesis clearly states the expected relationship between the independent and dependent variables, and it includes a because clause that links the prediction to a scientific concept. The classic structure is: If [independent variable], then [dependent variable] will [change], because [scientific reason].
A weak hypothesis is vague, untestable, or disconnected from science. A strong hypothesis gives you something concrete to measure and a reason to expect a particular outcome. When you write your depth study hypothesis, imagine you are explaining your prediction to a scientist who knows the field but does not know your specific experiment. Would they understand why you expect this result?
Weak: Plants near Wi-Fi will grow badly. Strong: If bean plants are grown within 1 metre of a Wi-Fi router, then their height after two weeks will be significantly less than plants grown more than 5 metres away, because electromagnetic radiation from Wi-Fi may interfere with cellular processes involved in plant growth. The second version is specific, testable, and reasoned.
NESA explicitly requires students to frame hypotheses using if-then-because logic in Year 9 depth studies, aligning with how professional scientists structure grant applications and research proposals.
Non-infectious diseases are not caused by pathogens and cannot be transmitted between people. They include cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, most cancers, autoimmune diseases, and neurodegenerative conditions. Prevention focuses on reducing risk factors rather than preventing infection.
Lifestyle modification: The most powerful prevention tool for many non-infectious diseases. Not smoking, maintaining a healthy weight, eating a balanced diet, exercising regularly, limiting alcohol, and protecting skin from UV radiation significantly reduce risk. The Cancer Council estimates that about one-third of all cancers are preventable through lifestyle changes.
Screening programs: Detect disease early when treatment is more effective. Australia has national screening programs for breast cancer (BreastScreen Australia), cervical cancer (National Cervical Screening Program), bowel cancer (National Bowel Cancer Screening Program), and newborn metabolic disorders.
Genetic counselling: For people with family histories of hereditary diseases (like BRCA-related breast cancer), genetic testing and counselling help assess risk and guide preventive decisions.
The National Bowel Cancer Screening Program mails free test kits to Australians aged 50-74 every two years. The test detects tiny amounts of blood in stool, an early sign of bowel cancer. If detected early (stage I), bowel cancer has a 99% 5-year survival rate. If detected late (stage IV), survival drops to 13%. Despite being free and simple, participation rates are only about 44%. Increasing participation to 60% could save over 80,000 lives over 20 years. This illustrates how screening, a prevention strategy for non-infectious disease, can be enormously effective but only if people actually use it. Public health campaigns aim to reduce stigma and increase awareness of the program.
Australian chronic disease prevention: The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) reports that chronic diseases account for 89% of deaths in Australia. The Australian Prevention Partnership Centre brings together researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to develop evidence-based prevention strategies. The National Strategic Framework for Chronic Conditions guides prevention efforts across states. Australia tobacco plain packaging laws (world-first, 2012) reduced smoking rates. The Health Star Rating system on food packaging helps consumers make healthier choices. These population-level interventions complement individual lifestyle changes to reduce the burden of non-infectious disease.
A social media influencer claims: "If you just eat organic food and exercise, you will never get cancer." Read the evidence and identify the flaws in this claim.
Wrong: "A depth study is just a long essay about a disease." No, a depth study is an investigation. It requires you to ask a question, gather evidence, analyse data, and draw conclusions. It is active science, not just research.
Right: A depth study is an active scientific investigation that requires asking a question, gathering evidence, analysing data, and drawing conclusions. It is not just a research essay.
Wrong: "The different topics in this unit have no connection to each other." No, they are deeply connected. Pathogens cause disease, which the immune system fights, which vaccines train, which antibiotics treat, which resistance limits, which public health prevents. Every topic links to others.
Right: All topics in this unit are deeply connected: pathogens cause disease, which the immune system fights, which vaccines train, which antibiotics treat, which resistance limits, which public health prevents.
Wrong: "Once you memorise facts about disease, you understand it." No, true understanding means being able to explain connections, apply concepts to new situations, and evaluate evidence. Facts are tools; understanding is the ability to use them.
Right: True understanding means being able to explain connections between concepts, apply them to new situations, and evaluate evidence. Facts alone are not enough without the ability to use them.
Australian Scientists Fighting Disease
Professor Fiona Stanley (AC): An Australian epidemiologist who founded the Telethon Kids Institute in Perth. Her research on birth defects, Indigenous health, and population health methods transformed Australian public health. She championed the use of population data to guide health policy.
Professor Ian Frazer: Co-developer of the HPV vaccine at the University of Queensland. His work has prevented countless cases of cervical cancer worldwide and put Australia on track to eliminate cervical cancer entirely.
Modern Australian research: Today, Australian scientists at WEHI, the Doherty Institute, CSIRO, and universities across the country continue to fight disease. During COVID-19, Australian researchers contributed to vaccine development, genomic surveillance, and long COVID research. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander researchers are increasingly leading health research that addresses community priorities with cultural authority.
✍ Copy Into Your Books
▾Unit Connections
- Pathogen -> Transmission -> Defence -> Treatment
- Infectious vs non-infectious disease
- Local, national, and global perspectives
Key Formulas
- Herd immunity threshold ≈ 1 - 1/R0
- Incidence rate = (new cases/population) × multiplier
- Case fatality rate = (deaths/cases) × 100%
Depth Study Steps
- Choose topic -> Formulate question -> Research -> Hypothesis -> Method -> Data collection -> Analysis -> Conclusions -> Communication
Concept Connections
Depth Study Planning
At the start of this lesson, you thought about how heart disease kills roughly 130 Australians every day, yet no bacterium, virus, or fungus is to blame, and your lifestyle choices right now in Year 9 already make a difference.
Now that you've worked through the lesson, can you explain the main risk factors for heart disease and why non-infectious diseases like this one are so different from the pathogens you studied in Lessons 1, 4 and 5? Did it change how you think about your own daily habits?
Q1. Explain the difference between an infectious and a non-infectious disease, giving one example of each. 2 marks
Q2. Type 2 diabetes is a non-infectious disease. Describe two lifestyle risk factors that increase a person's chance of developing it, and explain how changing these factors could reduce the risk. 3 marks
Q3. Evaluate the value of screening programs, such as the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program, as a strategy for reducing harm from non-infectious disease. 3 marks
Revisit Your Thinking
Go back to your Think First answer. Has your understanding changed?
- How has your understanding of disease and health developed across this entire unit?
- What connections between concepts do you find most powerful or surprising?
Model answers (click to reveal)
Answers
▾MCQ 1
A A non-infectious disease is not caused by a pathogen and cannot be passed from person to person. This is why vaccines and hygiene measures do not prevent them.
MCQ 2
C Type 2 diabetes is a non-infectious disease linked to lifestyle and genetic factors. Influenza, tuberculosis, and measles are all infectious diseases caused by pathogens.
MCQ 3
B Smoking and a diet high in saturated fat are lifestyle risk factors that increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. The other options relate to infectious disease or are protective, not risk factors.
MCQ 4
D Screening tests people who have no symptoms so that disease can be detected early, when treatment is more effective. For bowel cancer, early detection (stage I) has about a 99% 5-year survival rate.
MCQ 5
C A healthy lifestyle reduces cancer risk (the Cancer Council estimates about one-third of cancers are preventable) but cannot eliminate it, because genetics, random mutations, and environmental exposures also contribute. The claim ignores these factors.
Short Answer 1
Model answer: An infectious disease is caused by a pathogen (such as a virus, bacterium, or fungus) and can be passed from person to person, for example influenza or measles. A non-infectious disease is not caused by a pathogen and cannot be transmitted between people; it results from factors such as genetics, lifestyle, or the environment, for example type 2 diabetes or cardiovascular disease. The key difference is whether a pathogen causes the disease and whether it can spread.
Short Answer 2
Model answer: Two lifestyle risk factors for type 2 diabetes are (1) physical inactivity and (2) a poor diet high in sugar and energy leading to excess body weight. Increasing regular exercise helps the body use insulin more effectively and helps maintain a healthy weight, while eating a balanced diet with less sugar and fewer high-energy foods reduces excess weight and the strain on blood-glucose control. Because these factors are modifiable, changing them lowers a person's chance of developing the disease, which is why lifestyle modification is the main prevention strategy.
Short Answer 3
Model answer: Screening programs test people who have no symptoms so that disease can be found early, when treatment is more effective. A major strength is that early detection saves lives: bowel cancer detected at stage I has about a 99% 5-year survival rate, compared with about 13% if found late at stage IV. A limitation is that screening only works if people actually take part, and participation in the bowel program is only about 44%, so many cancers are still found late. Screening also does not prevent the disease, it detects it. Overall, screening is a valuable and cost-effective strategy for reducing harm from non-infectious disease, but its benefit depends on high participation supported by public-health campaigns.