2023-06-28 06:25:09
Rapid increase: In the last 30 years, the number of diabetics worldwide has almost doubled – this applies to all countries and regions, as a global study shows. Older people over the age of 65 are particularly affected, with one in five being affected on global average. According to forecasts, the number of diabetes cases worldwide could increase from 529 million today to 1.3 billion people by 2050, as researchers report in The Lancet.
Diabetes, commonly known as sugar disease, has long since become a widespread disease. In Germany alone, around seven million people suffer from type 2 diabetes – and the trend is rising. In those affected, the regulation of blood sugar gets out of balance, initially the cells no longer react properly to the blood sugar hormone insulin, and later the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas fail.
The main risk factors for type 2 diabetes are obesity and the wrong diet, but genetic predisposition is also a factor.
The proportion of those affected has almost doubled
An international team led by Kanyin Liane Ong from the University of Washington has now determined the current number of diabetes cases in 204 countries and regions, how the number of cases has developed since 1990 and what this means for the future. As part of the Global Burden of Disease (GBD), they also examined the distribution of diabetes across different age groups and its association with 16 different risk factors.
The result: Since 1990, the proportion of people with diabetes worldwide has almost doubled. A good 30 years ago, 3.2 percent of the world’s population was affected, but now it is 6.1 percent. A total of 529 million people worldwide are living with diabetes today. “The rate at which diabetes is increasing is not only alarming, but also a challenge for every healthcare system in the world,” says Ong. This applies in particular to the complications of diabetes.
If this trend continues, by 2050, 1.3 billion people worldwide could be suffering from diabetes. According to the team’s forecasts, the proportion of those affected will increase by 60 to 70 percent.
Cluster in Middle East and Oceania
Contrary to popular belief, diabetes rates are not highest in the rich western industrialized countries, but in North Africa, the Middle East and Oceania. While the proportion of diabetes patients in Germany is between four and six percent of the total population, 22 percent of residents on the Marshall Islands, for example, are affected. In the Gulf States of the Middle East, the average diabetes rate is 15 percent.
However: If you only look at the older population over 65 years of age, the proportion of diabetes cases is significantly higher everywhere. The global average is around 20 percent, and here in Central Europe the diabetes rate among over-65s is 19.8 percent. The numbers are significantly higher in the Middle East and Oceania: In Oceania, 43 percent of older people are affected, and in Qatar even 76 percent of people over 75 have diabetes.
Main causes: obesity and unhealthy diet
Ong and her team see obesity, lack of exercise and an unhealthy diet as the main causes of this development. “Especially in low- and middle-income countries, there has been an often abrupt shift from a traditional diet to industrially produced food,” explains Ong. “This is linked to a significant increase in diseases such as type 2 diabetes.”
But socio-economic factors also play a role, as the team emphasizes: health care and education is often inadequate, especially in developing and emerging countries, and there are also social and financial inequalities that make it difficult for large parts of the population to live and stay healthy to nourish.
“Type 2 diabetes is largely preventable and, in many cases, potentially reversible if detected and treated early,” the researchers write. “Nevertheless, all the data suggest that the prevalence of diabetes is increasing worldwide – mainly due to growing obesity.” Preventing type 2 diabetes and controlling it therefore remains a major challenge. (The Lancet, 2023; doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(23)01301-6)
Quelle: Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation
28. June 2023
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