Diabetes spread conundrum
Monday June 27th, 2011
The number of people worldwide with diabetes has doubled in the last 30 years, according to an analysis published as further research raised questions about the best way to treat the growing problem.
By
2008 some 347 million adults had the disease, according to the research
in The Lancet.
Most of the increase was because of growing and ageing populations - but 30 per cent reflects the spread of the disease through growing affluence and consumption of processed food, the researchers say.
The biggest increases are in the islands of the Pacific - with a relatively small increase in western Europe outstripped by big increases in the USA, the researchers say. However Spain has some of the highest rates - while France, Austria and the Netherlands have the lowest rates in the world's wealthiest countries.
Some 138 million people with diabetes live in India and China
Researcher Professor Majid Ezzati, of Imperial College London, UK said "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."
Fellow researcher Dr Goodarz Danaei, of the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, said: "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."
* A European study has found that intensive treatment of patients with type 2 diabetes - non-insulin dependent disease that develops late in life - achieves only a small reduction in deaths, heart attacks and stroke.
The study involved more than 3,000 patients, reported in The Lancet, and showed a half a percentage point reduction in death rates - and researchers said this was not statistically significant. Death rates fell from 6.7 per cent to 6.2 per cent.
The "intensive" treatment involved education programmes, aimed at improving lifestyles, and close monitoring of blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels.
It was tested in general practices in the UK, Denmark and the Netherlands, and led by Professor Nick Wareham and Dr Simon Griffin, of the UK Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, UK.
During the study patients were randomly assigned to intense treatment or standard treatment.
* A second UK study in the same journal also finds mixed benefits from seeking to change the lifestyle of people with diabetes.
The Bristol researchers found that giving advice about diet led to improvements in blood sugar control - but persuading patients to increase activity levels made no difference.
Researchers led by Dr Robert Andrews, of the University of Bristol, UK, tested different approaches on nearly 600 adult patients.
Writing in the journal, Dr Frank Hu, of Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, USA, says the findings do not rule out the benefits of improving physical activity.
He states: "There is little doubt that improved nutrition and physical activity are beneficial for individuals with or without diabetes, and research into the most effective way to deliver these benefits (including individual behavioural changes and creation of a supportive food and social environment) deserves high priority."
The Lancet, published online 25 June 2011. DOI:10.1016/S0140-6736(11)60679-X
Tags: Asia | Diabetes | Europe | UK News | World Health
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