The Prevalence of Diabetes

Our knowledge of the prevalence of diabetes is thanks to statistics from data compiled by governments and the World Health Organisation. You may be wondering why this is of any importance to anyone other than the statisticians.

The existence of diabetes statistics has enabled us to realise that the incidence of diabetes is on the increase in the populations of many Western Countries. Knowing this means that governments can plan their spending on health care accordingly and also make efforts to combat the increase by educating the public about diabetes and its causes and putting preventative measures in place. An in depth look at the statistics means that high risk groups can be targeted, which is more efficient than trying to target everyone.

For us as individuals the statistics can be useful too. We can discover if we are in a group with a high risk of becoming diabetic and we can act to reduce the chance of it happening. For writers and business owners the statistics are a clue to things our potential customers or readers might be interested in. For example seeing just how many people in the USA are being treated for diabetes can give the business owner an idea of the market for diabetes related products such as blood and urine test kits. The writer can also assume that because diabetes isn’t an easy condition to live with, people with it will be interested in accessible information about how to manage their condition and as awareness grows, the ‘worried well’ will be interested in articles about how to reduce the risk of becoming diabetic. The best way to reduce the risk is by losing weight if you are overweight.Diabetes UK states that ‘obesity is the most potent risk factor for Type 2 diabetes. It accounts for 80–85 per cent of the overall risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.’

USA Data comes from the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion and their ‘National Diabetes Factsheet 2011’

USA population in 2010 was approx. 300000000

In 2010 18.8 million people had Diabetes in the USA (6.3% of the population)

7 million people were estimated to be undiagnosed diabetics. (2.3% of the population)

If you want to look at targeting populations with a high incidence of diabetes then 26.9% of the over 65s had diabetes in 2010 which is 10.9 million people.

The statistics also tell us that the ‘worried well’ have good reason to be worried. Research into the percentage of the population with prediabetes, showed 35% of over 20 year olds were prediabetic rising to 50% of 65 year olds. The good news is that changes to an individual’s diet and exercise regime can reverse this taking them out of the diabetes risk zone.

For anyone still thinking that Diabetes statistics are not important to them, it’s worth bearing in mind that the Factsheet reports that in 2007 Diabetes costs in the USA were $174 billion dollars. 67% of that was in direct medical costs and 33% was due to indirect costs such as early deaths and people being unable to work because of deteriorating health. Inevitably some of that will be coming from taxes but also some people are making a lot of money from selling medical supplies for treating diabetes and other diabetes related products such as books and diabetes alert jewelry..

UK data comes from the Diabetes UK report ‘Diabetes in the UK 2011/2012: Key statistics on diabetes’

In 2011 there were 65.2 million people in the UK. Of these there are 2.9 million people diagnosed with diabetes and an estimated 850000 who have undiagnosed diabetes. There are proportionally fewer diabetics in Northern Ireland and More in England.

Diabetes costs the NHS (and therefore the taxpayer) 9 billion pounds per year. Another cost is reduced life expectancy of up to 10 years on average for people with type 2 diabetes.

In 2011, according to the International Diabetes Federation, countries with large populations such as Russia and China tend to have a lot of diabetics. That isn’t surprising. However, the proportion of a countries population with diabetes does throw up some surprises. Nauru, Kiribati and the Marshall Island are in the top five for highest proportion of diabetics. They are three small Island Countries in the Pacific Ocean.

The World Health Organisation has produced an interesting report whereby they have estimated how many diabetes cases there will be worldwide by 2030. This is based on the rate of diabetes in countries around the globe in 2000 and the rate of increase of cases from since previous studies were made.

The International Diabetes Federation prediction is higher. In their 2009 report, they believe that 552 million people will be diabetic by 2030

Domestic dogs and cats can also develop diabetes and there are plenty of products and books available for this market as well. ‘Pet Diabetes.co.uk’ states that 1 in 500 cats and 1 in 500 dogs are estimated to be diabetic in Britain. It's reasonable to assume that a similar figure applies to America too.

The Pet Food Manufacturer's Association tells us that there are 8 million dogs and 8 million cats in the UK. According to The Humane Society of USA there are 78.2 million dogs and 86.4 million cats in America.

A less familiar pet, which is very susceptible to diabetes, is the degu. These are rather gerbil like but related more closely to chinchillas. There are very few degu specific products on the market.