300 Million Have Diabetes Worldwide

Thu, 22 Oct 2009
Type 2 diabetes is a debilitating and chronic disease which means that that the body is not able to regulate blood glucose levels effectively.

It can lead to serious complications and lower life expectancy.

This condition has rapidly increased in the last 50 years, to the extent that it is referred to as an epidemic. This kind of diabetes is estimated to be the fifth major cause of mortality globally.

Just in England, 2 million plus people have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes .

There is another 667,000 undiagnosed cases (Forouhi, 2006).

Presently, around 5% of total NHS spending and up to 10% of hospital inpatient resources are spent on the treatment and care of type 2 diabetes (Department of Health, 2001).

It is considered that these figures are about to rise, placing a serious financial and clinical challenge to the UK’s health system.

In the majority of countries 15% of adults have prediabetes based on WHO criteria, with around 5-12% developing diabetes every year.

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