Study indicates 69 percent increase in number of type 2 diabetes cases in the UK

On its website, BBC News (2/24) reports that, according to a study published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, the “UK is seeing an explosion of diabetes linked to growing obesity rates.” Specifically, “from 1997 to 2003 there was a 74 percent rise in new cases of diabetes,” and “by 2005, more than four percent of the population was classed as having diabetes,” a figure that was “nearly double the rate of 10 years earlier.” The majority of diabetes cases reported “are type 2 diabetes – which is linked to being overweight or obese.”

For the study, researchers from the Spanish Center for Pharmaco-epidemiological Research in Madrid, Spain, analyzed “a UK database containing almost five million medical records for the study,” Bloomberg News (2/24, Britt) explains. Analysis revealed that “the number of new cases of type 1 diabetes, a form of the disease often diagnosed in childhood in which the body does not produce insulin, showed little change over the decade studied,” but “the number of cases of type 2 diabetes, a more common condition in which the body becomes resistant to insulin later in life, climbed 69 percent.”

The UK’s Telegraph (2/24, Smith, Editor) quotes Douglas Smallwood, chief executive of leading health charity Diabetes UK, as saying, “This research is a sad indictment of the current state of the UK’s health. Sadly, the statistics are not surprising as we know that the soaring rates of type 2 diabetes are strongly linked to the country’s expanding waistline,” he added. The Telegraph notes that approximately a fourth “of English adults are obese, and one official forecast suggests nine out of ten adults will be overweight or obese by 2050.”

The UK’s Herald (2/24, Horton) points out that the rates are “higher than…in the US and Canada, which have among the highest incidence of diabetes globally, fuelling fears that the UK now has the world’s worst growth levels of the disease.” In light of the fact that the National Health Service “in Scotland already spends £114,000 an hour on tackling diabetes, which can cause heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, and blindness,” Jane-Claire Judson, director of the charity Diabetes UK Scotland, stated, “The soaring diabetes prevalence will only increase…pressure on” public-health “resources. We need to do all we can to raise awareness of the seriousness of diabetes and help people understand how a healthy lifestyle can reduce their risk of developing type 2 diabetes,” she added. The UK’s Press Association (2/24) also covers the story.