International diabetes survey shows condition remains prevalent worldwide
A new international study has revealed that diabetes affects over 350 million adults around the world, and that this figure is not growing any smaller. The findings, presented in a report published in The Lancet, bring together 28 years of research in the field, carried out by a global team of scientists from South Korea, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. The collected data, spanning the period from 1980 to 2008, show that around the world diabetes levels have either increased or remained constant. The World Health Organisation defines diabetes as a condition that occurs when the cells of the body are not able to take up sugar in the form of glucose. As a result, the amount of glucose in the blood is higher than normal. Over time, this raises the risk of heart disease and stroke, and can also be damaging to the kidneys, nerves and retinas. The study reveals that 3 million people die every year due to high blood glucose and diabetes. During the 28-year period of the study, the number of adults with diabetes rose from 153 million to 347 million. Although 70% of the rise was due to population growth and ageing, the other 30% can be attributed to new cases of diabetes. In addition, the proportion of adults with diabetes rose from 8.3% of men and 7.5% of women in 1980 to 9.8% of men and 9.2% of women in 2008. The study took blood sugar measurements from 2.7 million participants aged 25 years or older across the world, and used advanced statistical methods for analysing the data. Professor Majid Ezzati from the School of Public Health at Imperial College London in the United Kingdom, comments on the report: 'Diabetes is one of the biggest causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Our study has shown that diabetes is becoming more common almost everywhere in the world. This is in contrast to blood pressure and cholesterol, which have both fallen in many regions. Diabetes is much harder to prevent and treat than these other conditions.' To test whether or not someone has diabetes, doctors measure glucose levels in a patient's blood after they have fasted for 12 to 14 hours, as blood sugar rises after a meal. A 'fasting plasma glucose' (FPG) below 5.6 millimoles per litre (mmol/l) is considered normal, above 7 mmol/l is diagnostic of diabetes, and an FPG level between 5.6 and 7 is considered pre-diabetes. Dr Goodarz Danaei, from the Harvard School of Public Health comments on the importance of testing: 'Unless we develop better programmes for detecting people with elevated blood sugar and helping them to improve their diet and physical activity and control their weight, diabetes will inevitably continue to impose a major burden on health systems around the world.' The study also highlighted the geographical spread of diabetes. Of the 347 million people with diabetes, 138 million live in China and India and another 36 million in the USA and Russia. The highest levels of diabetes are in Pacific Island nations: in the Marshall Islands, one in three women and one in four men have diabetes. Glucose and diabetes were also particularly high in south Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, central Asia, north Africa and the Middle East.For more information, please visit: Imperial College London: http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/
Countries
Switzerland, South Korea, United Kingdom, United States