The number of people with diabetes will double by 2050 globally

The number of people suffering from diabetes could double in the next three decades worldwide, according to a study published this Thursday in the medical journal The Lancet.

According to recent estimates, the number will go from 529 million patients in 2021 to more than 1.3 billion in 2050. This increase, which marks a different scale, will affect all the 204 countries that have been analyzed within the framework of the research, warn the researchers. scientists.

In particular, some countries and regions will be especially affected. Thus, it is estimated that by 2050 incidence rates will reach 16.8% in North Africa and the Middle East and 11.3% in Latin America and the Caribbean, compared to a forecast of 9.8% on a global scale. Currently, the figure is 6.1%.

“It is estimated that the increase in prevalence will be driven by the increase in type 2 diabetes, which in turn will be caused by the rise in the incidence of obesity and demographic changes,” the study explains.

Likewise, doctors consider that since 2021, 90% of the entire prevalence of the disease is represented by type 2 diabetes, which “has a strong genetic component and a solid association with obesity and a sedentary lifestyle.”

This high percentage is attributable to social risk factors, such as a high body mass index, inadequate diet, environmental and occupational hazards, and tobacco and alcohol consumption, as well as little physical activity, the researchers emphasize. These factors thrive thanks to the “obesogenic way our environments are designed and the unequal way we organize our resources and societies,” they add.

According to the latest estimates, in 2045 about three out of every four adults with diabetes will live in low- and middle-income countries. Now only 10% of people with diabetes living in those countries receive necessary diabetes care.

Regardless of the economic well-being of the nation, globally, discriminated and marginalized people suffer more and worse consequences from diabetes. Thus, in the United States, the greatest burden is observed among African American and indigenous populations. With RT

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