Diabetes is a growing global epidemic

Posted by Craig Clarke 
on May 16, 2012
 
The number of people living with, and dying of, diabetes across the world is shocking: 90 million Chinese live with diabetes and 1.3 million died in 2011; 23% of Qatari adults have developed diabetes. Here we chart the extent of the global epidemic and present some of the implications for national governments.
 
Type 2 diabetes accounts for almost 90% of all cases of diabetes in adults worldwide.
 
On average, nearly 8% of adults living in high-income countries (see map below for country classication) have diabetes. It is, however, upper-middle and middle-income countries that have the highest prevalence of diabetes; over 10% of adults in these countries have the condition. In high-income countries, diabetes primarily a　icts people over 50 years of age. But in middle-income countries, the highest prevalence is in younger people — the most productive age groups. As these people age, and as life expectancies increase, prevalence in older age groups will rise further. is trend will put a huge burden on healthcare systems and governments. e mortality rate of diabetes varies sharply with the prosperity of the country.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 In general, as countries become richer, people eat a more sugar- and fat-rich diet and are less physical active — and the incidence of diabetes rises. 
 
In 2011, the disease caused more than 3.5 million deaths in middle-income countries, of which more than 1 million were in China and just less than a million were in India. Approximately 1.2 adults die of a diabetes-associated illness per 1,000 cases in 2011 in low- and middle-income countries: more than double the mortality rate of high-income countries. Mortality rates are much lower in high-income countries with the greater healthcare recourses, but those tolls are still high: approximately 180,000 people died in the United States in 2011, for example.
 
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