The Change Mariner: Diabetes Reportedly to Double Worldwide by 2030

April 26, 2004

Diabetes Reportedly to Double Worldwide by 2030

Diabetes rates will double worldwide by 2030, to 366 million people with the disease, even if the obesity rate remains stable, an international team of researchers reported on Monday.
But the rate will go up even higher if, as expected, more and more people become overweight, eat a so-called Western diet and stop exercising, the researchers said.

"The total number of people with diabetes is projected to rise from 171 million in 2000 to 366 million in 2030," the researchers wrote in the latest issue of Diabetes Care, published by the American Diabetes Association.

...

Sarah Wild of the University of Edinburgh in Britain and colleagues in Australia, Denmark and Switzerland, looked at type-2 diabetes figures from around the world, using United Nations data to project future diabetes rates based on current trends.

"Assuming that age-specific prevalence remains constant, the number of people with diabetes in the world is expected to approximately double between 2000 and 2030 based solely upon demographic changes," Wild and her colleagues said.

"The greatest relative increases will occur in the Middle Eastern Crescent, sub-Saharan Africa, and India."

The Hungry Gene: The Science of Fat and the Future of Thin
Atlantic Monthly Press

Amazon Price:

Fat Land : How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World
Mariner Books

Amazon Price: $10.40

Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health (California Studies in Food and Culture, 3)
University of California Press

Amazon Price: $11.53

How We Eat : Appetite, Culture, and the Psychology of Food
Ecw Press

Amazon Price: $10.85

E-mail This Story