China tops list of world’s diabetics: Study
November 15th, 2010 - 4:55 pm ICT by ANIBeijing, Nov 15 (ANI): China has the highest number of diabetics in the world, with an estimated 92.4 million sufferers, 61 percent of whom are yet to be diagnosed, experts warned.
China Daily quoted experts as saying that people who go without being properly diagnosed are more likely to have blood glucose that is poorly controlled, which leaves them open to the risk of developing complications that affect their eyesight and kidneys, having a stroke or a limb amputated.
“A combination of poor public awareness and limited access to early detection services are largely responsible for the low diagnostic rate on the mainland,” Ji Linong, head of the Chinese Diabetes Society (CDS), said on Sunday at an event marking World Diabetes Day.
Recommending a universal screening program for high-risk groups, he said: “The government should spend more on services to intervene and prevent diabetes.”
Those aged over 40, overweight or living in well-off urban areas are at a higher risk of developing diabetes, and overweight children are also susceptible to developing the disorder, medical studies have shown.
“Early diagnosis and treatment would help provide effective medical intervention, which lowers the costs incurred,” Ji added.
According to the latest study jointly conducted by the CDS and the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), 13 percent of the total medical expenditure in China, around 25 billion dollars, is related to diabetes.
In emerging countries like China and India, phenomenal changes like rapid economic growth, new trends such as mass urbanization, different diets and increasingly sedentary lifestyles have all greatly increased the risk of developing diabetes.
Worldwide, diabetes currently affects more than 300 million people and is expected to cost the global economy at least 376 billion dollars in 2010, or 11.6 percent of the total world expenditure on healthcare, IDF statistics show.
Without intervention, by 2030 there will be 500 million people throughout the world with diabetes at a projected cost of more than 490 billion dollars for the global economy, Ji estimated. (ANI)
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Tags: billion dollars, blood glucose, china daily, diabetes society, eyesight, global economy, international diabetes federation, medical expenditure, medical intervention, medical studies, new trends, overweight children, phenomenal changes, rapid economic growth, risk groups, screening program, sedentary lifestyles, universal screening, urbanization, world diabetes