The Healthylife Living Healthy Report 2026 – the health confidence disconnect.
by Simone Austin
Chief Health Officer at healthylife, Accredited Practising Dietitian
Are Australians as able to look after their health as they are confident they can?
As Lifestyle Medicine practitioners, we know the challenge of translating people’s healthy intentions into long-term behaviours.
The 2026 Living Healthy Report, produced by Healthylife’s Health Advisory Board, explores a fascinating and concerning “health confidence disconnect“. It combined new nationally representative survey data, along with unique Woolworths Group food purchasing data and key national statistics to unpack the nation’s confidence perception vs reality in ability to look after one’s health.
An overwhelming 91% of Australians agree they can look after their own health, and the nation scored a high average of 75 out of 100 on the inaugural Health Confidence Survey. However, our rising lifestyle-related chronic disease rates and poor dietary habits tell a completely different story.
The report unpacks the underlying barriers holding us back, exploring cognitive blind spots like the Dunning-Kruger effect—where individuals overestimate their health knowledge—and the powerful, often unseen influence our environments have on overriding our daily choices. A 5 question, 60 second survey developed helps people gain their own insight and can be used as a conversation starting point with clients.
Want to dive deeper into these crucial insights? Join Healthylife’s Chief Health Officer, Simone Austin, at ASLM’s annual conference LM26: THE NATURE OF HEALTH: Lifestyle Medicine Pillars in Practice, Sunday 15 November in Hobart for her presentation: “Does the nation have a health confidence disconnect?”
Don’t miss out on these valuable statistics and insights. Download the full 2026 Living Healthy Report here today and take the National Health Confidence Survey to uncover your own score and identify potential blind spots. We all have them!
Simone Austin
Simone Austin has had a dynamic dietetic career, ranging from fuelling some of Australia’s most successful sporting teams—including the Australian Men’s Cricket Team, Hawthorn AFL Football Club, and Melbourne Storm—to authoring her book, Eat Like An Athlete, working in the supplement and food industry and running a dietetic private practice for many years.
Advocating for preventive health and the dietetic profession has been important with Simone a past president of Sports Dietitians Australia, director of Dietitians Australia and manager of the Advocacy and Policy team at Dietitians Australia. Her current role involves leading the annual publication of Healthylife’s Living Healthy Report in her current role as Chief Health Officer and Chair of the Health Advisory Board. Simone is passionate about creating environments that better support our health.
