Every country in the world will see diabetes rates rise in the next 30 years if no action is takenaccording to a new global study.
There are currently 529 million people in the world with diabetes, found the study led by researchers at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. They projected that this will more than double to around 1.3 billion people by 2050.
Cases of diabetes in the world
Most cases are type 2 diabetesthe form of the disease that is linked to obesity and is largely preventable, the researchers said.
The increase in prevalence globally is not uniform: some countries and regions are particularly affected. For example, prevalence rates are expected to reach 16.8% in North Africa and the Middle East and 11.3% in Latin America and the Caribbean by 2050, compared to an estimated 9.8% globally. Currently, the prevalence is 6.1%. But all countries will be affected, the researchers said.
“The rapid rate at which diabetes is growing is not only alarming but also a challenge for all health systems in the world,” said Liane Ong, the paper’s lead author, noting that the condition is linked to other heart conditions, such as heart disease and stroke.
Increased disease
The growing number of people with diabetes is partly due to rising obesity and partly to changing demographics: Prevalence is highest among older adults, the study showed. The data from 204 countries does not take into account the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic because those numbers were not yet available, the researchers said.
The study, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is part of a larger series on diabetes published Thursday in The Lancet medical journal. The series calls for more effective mitigation strategies and an awareness of inequality, as most diabetes patients live in low- and middle-income countries and cannot access proper treatment.