WHO: global number of people with diabetes more than quadrupled since 1990
The total number of adults living with either type 1 or type 2 diabetes in the world has more than quadrupled since 1990, surpassing 800 million in 2022, TASS reports
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), which cites a study published in The Lancet scientific journal, in 2022, approximately 828 million people aged 18 and older suffered from diabetes – 630 million more than in 1990. From 1990 to 2022, the prevalence of this disease increased in 131 countries for women and 155 countries for men. The increase was greatest in low- and middle-income countries in South-East and South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, as well as Latin America and the Caribbean.
The authors of the study claim that the countries with the lowest rates of diabetes in 2022 were in Western Europe and East Africa for both sexes, and in Japan and Canada for women. The highest prevalence was recorded in Polynesia and Micronesia, some Caribbean, Middle East and North African nations, as well as Pakistan and Malaysia.
In 2022, 445 million adults aged 30 years and older with diabetes did not receive medication for diabetes – 3.5 times more than in 1990. “The burden of diabetes is increasingly falling on low- and middle-income countries,” say the authors of the research paper.
The study used data from over 140 million people.