Number of adults with diabetes worldwide twice a high as thought

More than 800 million adults have diabetes worldwide, almost twice as many as previously thought, research has suggested.

The study, published in the journal The Lancet to coincide with World Diabetes Day earlier this week (14 November), also concluded that more than half of those aged over 30 who have the condition are not receiving treatment.

The global prevalence of diabetes has doubled since 1990 to 14% from around 7%, the study argued, with much of this increase being driven by rising numbers of diagnoses in low- and middle-income countries.

In all, in 2022, there were around 828 million people aged 18 years and older with type 1 and type 2 diabetes worldwide, the study found. Among adults aged 30 years and older, 445 million, or 59% of them, were not receiving treatment, the authors said.

“Our results show an expanding inequity of diabetes in the world: the largest increases in prevalence have occurred in low-income and middle-income countries, whereas the improvements in treatment were largest in high-income and industrialised nations in Europe, north America, Australasia, and the Pacific, and some well performing middle-income nations and emerging economies, especially those in Latin America,” the study argued.

“These trends have widened the global gap in diabetes prevalence and treatment, with an increasing share of people with diabetes, especially with untreated diabetes, living in low-income and middle-income countries,” it said.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has previously estimated that about 422 million people have the condition, and WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the new figures suggested there had been “an alarming rise in diabetes over the past three decades”.

This reflected the increase in obesity, compounded by the impacts of the marketing of unhealthy food, a lack of physical activity and economic hardship, he added.

“To bring the global diabetes epidemic under control, countries must urgently take action. This starts with enacting policies that support healthy diets and physical activity, and, most importantly, health systems that provide prevention, early detection and treatment,” Dr Ghebreyesus said.

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