New research led by Macquarie University<\/a> has found Australians living in regional communities face higher mortality rates from MND than those living in major cities.<\/p>\nThey found Tasmanians were 40% more likely to die from MND than people from New South Wales.<\/p>\n
The study also found nationwide mortalities from MND had tripled in the past 40 years, climbing from 238 in 1986, to 781 in 2023, with 1 in 200 Australians dying from MND annually.<\/p>\n
While the study did not confirm why regional communities were the most susceptible, it did put forward some possible factors.<\/p>\n
One factor was higher levels of agricultural activity in regional areas, with overseas research linking farm work and pesticide exposure to an increased risk of developing MND.<\/p>\n
![\"Man](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/9bd91686a54abde655224c017e541f72.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Dominic Rowe was a senior author of the study.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0 (Supplied: Dominic Rowe)<\/p>\n
Professor Dominic Rowe, who was a senior author on the study, told ABC Radio Hobart that since the 1980s, “millions of kilograms of chemicals” had been released across agricultural areas in Australia, “with no oversight and no understanding of their toxicity”.<\/p>\n
While more research is needed, Professor Rowe said it could be “cumulative exposure,” rather than “a single identifiable toxic exposure” that could be causing more people in the regions to develop MND than in other areas.<\/p>\n
Diagnosis journey a ‘double whammy’<\/p>\n
Mrs Skipper said she was hit with a “double whammy” when it came to securing a formal diagnosis, which resulted in her paying for seven different specialists out of her own pocket.<\/p>\n
“Not only did I not have an income, but then I had this extraordinary medical expenditure that I was living with as well, and no help,” she said.<\/p>\n
“Most of the specialists that I was seeing and under their care were in Hobart. Many times I had to stay overnight.”<\/p>\n
“Many occasions I had MRIs, I had X-rays, I had scans, all at full cost to myself because I had no healthcare card, I had no travel assistance.”<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/9b5ea850f6a183ef2dd506bbd0d35bbe.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Kelli Skipper says she has been wrapped in support by her husband, Raymond. (Supplied: Kelli Skipper)<\/p>\n
Even though there were neurologists and other specialists located closer to her home, \u00a0she said they were often booked out, which forced her to spend hours commuting.<\/p>\n
“There was \u2026 zero support until that formal diagnosis,” she said.<\/p>\n
Since her diagnosis, she said she had been able to access “exceptional” treatment much closer to her home and was receiving financial assistance via the National Disability Insurance Scheme.<\/p>\n
Calls for more research and support<\/p>\n
The study’s authors are calling for the establishment of a compulsory national MND registry to enable researchers to track patterns and better investigate possible risk factors relating to geography and the environment.<\/p>\n
Scientists push to explore potential link between motor neurone disease and blue-green algae<\/a><\/p>\nThe number of people dying from motor neurone disease in Australia has more than doubled in the past 30 years, and some scientists think environmental factors might be to blame.<\/p>\n
“We must do everything we have in our command to identify why people get motor neuron disease. And understanding the cause is critical because the cause informs the mechanism,” Professor Rowe said.<\/p>\n
“Until we have mechanistic therapies, we won’t be able to slow and stop motor neuron disease, which is universally fatal.”<\/p>\n
Mrs Skipper also wanted to see more research focused on uncovering the causes of MND and hoped it would one day be not only curable, but preventable.<\/p>\n
She said there also needed to be access to financial support for people before they received an official diagnosis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kelli Skipper knows all too well the difficulty regional Australians face when it comes to getting diagnosed with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":575738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,1300,75,137,60305,19439,1695,29602,100758,74216,13262,2801],"class_list":["post-575737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-death","tag-environment","tag-health","tag-hotspots","tag-increase","tag-industry","tag-links","tag-mnd","tag-motor-neuron-disease","tag-regional","tag-tasmania"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}