A global study shows that diabetes rates worldwide have more than doubled in the past three decades, with more than half of cases going untreated.
What is diabetes?
Diabetes is a chronic disease caused when the pancreas does not produce enough (or any) insulin (a hormone that regulates blood glucose) or the body cannot effectively use the insulin it produces. Uncontrolled diabetes can cause hyperglycemia, or elevated blood sugar, which over time can cause serious damage to many of the body’s systems, especially the nerves and blood vessels.
What is the difference between type 1 and type 2 diabetes?
Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which the body destroys the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin. Type 2 diabetes is a metabolic disease that causes the body to not use insulin properly. More than 95% of people with diabetes have type 2 diabetes. Unlike type 1, type 2 diabetes can be prevented. Excess weight, unhealthy eating and insufficient exercise, as well as genetic factors, can increase the risk of developing diabetes.
How many people have diabetes?
The Lancet study found that diabetes rates in adults doubled from about 7% to about 14% between 1990 and 2022. In total, it calculated that 828 million people over the age of 18 have the condition, an increase of around 630 million people over the past three decades.
While India accounted for more than a quarter of all cases and has a diabetes rate of more than 20%, Britain’s diabetes rate (8.8%) is second only to the US (12.5%) in the G7.
Why is the number of diabetes cases growing so quickly?
Rising levels of obesity are fueling an epidemic of type 2 diabetes. According to the World Obesity Federation, nearly 1 billion adults and 159 million children are obese. Because you are more likely to develop diabetes as you get older, the aging global society is also increasing the prevalence of the condition. A healthy lifestyle is unaffordable for some people. In many countries, unhealthy food is cheap, convenient and widely advertised, while healthy food may become increasingly difficult to obtain and more expensive in the face of droughts, floods and rising sea levels caused by climate change, according to the World Health Organization. Meanwhile, it is difficult to exercise safely in some places.
How is diabetes treated?
People with type 1 diabetes need insulin injections or a pump to survive. While people with type 2 diabetes may need insulin or glucose-lowering medications; Diet and lifestyle changes also help control blood sugar levels.
Why are so many people in low- and middle-income countries not getting the medicines they need?
Nearly 450 million people with diabetes are not being treated, the Lancet study shows, three and a half times as many as in 1990. Most of these people have not been diagnosed. Despite the availability of effective glucose-lowering medications, millions of people with diabetes in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) remain untreated. According to Leif Fenger Jensen, chief executive of the World Diabetes Foundation, “complex barriers to access to health care” in low- and middle-income countries make tackling diabetes more difficult. “These challenges lead to underdiagnosis and limited access to diabetes care, with major human and economic costs to both individuals and society.”
What can be done about it?
Improving access to a doctor will make both prevention and diagnosis easier. Reducing the cost of diabetes medications, especially in LMICs, would also make a difference. Moreover, there is broad consensus that more action is needed to reduce obesity.
A study published last month found that reducing the amount of sugar children eat in the womb and as toddlers can protect them from diabetes and high blood pressure in adulthood.
Johanna Ralston, CEO of the World Obesity Forum, said countries should take a systematic approach “with an emphasis on prevention, public health measures and policies that limit exposure to unhealthy food marketing, especially to children.”