Alarming Rise In Worldwide Diabetes Cases Reported

Wed, 29 Jun 2011

The number people in the world suffering from diabetes has more than doubled over the last three decades, according to new research published in the journal The Lancet.

In 1980 the global diabetic population stood at around 153 million. However, it is now thought that some 347 million individuals worldwide have either type 1 or type 2 diabetes, with diabetes rates either rising or remaining unchanged in every part of the world during the past 30 years.

The alarming figure comes from a team of international researchers who analysed data collected from more than 2.7 million people from around the world. They then used statistical modeling methods to extrapolate the information for the entire world population.

"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," said co-author Professor Majid Ezzati from Imperial College London.

According to the researchers, the findings highlight the fact that more needs to be done to help tackle the disease, particularly type 2 diabetes, which is by far the most common form and can be prevented, unlike type 1 diabetes .

Dr. Goodarz Danaei, of the Harvard School of Public Health, commented: "Unless we develop better programs 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."

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