“Alarming” increase in diabetes worldwide by 2050

LONDON (Reuters) – Every country in the world will see diabetes rates rise over the next 30 years without action, according to a new global study.

There are currently 529 million people worldwide with diabetes, according to the study by researchers from the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. They predict that number will more than double to about 1.3 billion people by 2050.

The majority of cases are type 2 diabetes, the obesity-linked and largely preventable form of the disease, the researchers said.

The rise in prevalence around the world is not uniform: some countries and regions are particularly affected. For example, prevalence rates are projected to reach 16.8% in North Africa and the Middle East and 11.3% in Latin America and the Caribbean by 2050, compared to around 9.8% globally. Currently, the prevalence is 6.1%. But all countries will be affected, the researchers said.

“The rapid rate at which diabetes is developing is not only alarming but also challenging for all health systems around the world,” said Liane Ong, lead author of the paper, pointing out that the disease is linked to a number of other heart diseases such as heart disease and stroke.

The growing number of people with diabetes is partly due to the rise in obesity and partly to demographic changes: the prevalence is higher in older people, according to the study. Data from 204 countries does not take into account the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic because those figures were not yet available, researchers said.

The study, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is part of a larger series on diabetes published Thursday in the medical journal The Lancet. The series calls for more effective mitigation strategies and awareness of inequalities, with the majority of diabetes patients living in low- and middle-income countries lacking access to appropriate treatment.

(Reporting by Jennifer Rigby; Editing by Aurora Ellis)

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