Diabetes up 74%
Friday 27th February 2009
The UK is seeing an explosion of diabetes linked to growing obesity rates, experts are warning.
From 1997 to 2003 there was a 74% rise in new cases of diabetes.
And by 2005, more than 4% of the population was classed as having diabetes - nearly double the rate of 10 years earlier.
The bulk of cases are type 2 diabetes - which is linked to being overweight or obese - the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health reports. The findings suggest that rates of diabetes are increasing at a faster rate in the UK than they are in the US, where prevalence of the disease is already one of the highest in the world.
Of more than 42,642 people who were newly diagnosed with the disease between 1996 and 2005, just over 1,250 had the inherited "insulin-dependent" type 1 diabetes, and more than 41,000 had later-onset type 2 disease, which is linked to lifestyle.
While the numbers of new cases of type 1 diabetes remained fairly constant over the decade, the numbers of new cases of type 2 diabetes did not.
These shot up from 2.60 to 4.31 cases per 1,000 patient years, equivalent to an increase of 69% over the decade.
The researchers from Spain and Sweden who analysed the data from almost five million medical records say the trends are not due to increased screening or the Britains ageing population, but from rising obesity rates.
