Type 2 Diabetes Epidemic: a Global Education

[Abu-Salman]

Nov 14 marks World Diabetes Day, led by the International Diabetes Federation and its member associations. It kicks-starts a 5-year programme on education and prevention. Every year there are 4 million deaths worldwide due to diabetes—almost the same as the number attributed to smoking. Today, 285 million people across the world are living with diabetes; an estimated 70% are in low-income and middle-income countries (LMIC). Around 90% of the burden is caused by type 2 diabetes, which is a preventable chronic disease. Urbanisation, cultural and social factors, and unhealthy lifestyles are associated with the increase in disease; most of these are modifiable risk factors.

 

The importance of education to promote a healthy lifestyle for prevention of diabetes is highlighted in The Lancet today. The Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) Research Group present the 10-year follow-up of the original DPP cohort in the outcomes study (DPPOS). Both DPP and DPPOS emphasise that an intensive lifestyle intervention can avert the onset of type 2 diabetes: over the 10-year period, onset was delayed by up to 4 years.

 

Education involves teaching people about preventing and managing disease and assisting health-care professionals to recognise and treat diabetes in a timely manner. But it is not only the individual and health-care provider who require access to diabetes education. Policy makers and governments also need to be educated. Although LMIC are disproportionately affected by the burden of type 2 diabetes, many health-care planners are unaware of the size of the problem. The costs incurred by diabetes morbidity are far greater than the costs of disease prevention. Prominent public health campaigns, similar to those used in smoking cessation, should be considered. As with tobacco smoking, type 2 diabetes is a preventable cause of morbidity and death.

 

The Lancet