More than 800 million adults worldwide live with type 1 or type 2 diabetes, with the global rate of diabetes in adults set to double between 1990 and 2022, according to analysis findings published in the journal The Lancet. on World Diabetes Day.

The global rate of diabetes, type 1 and type 2 combined, among adults, both men and women, has increased from about 7% in 1990 to about 14% in 2022, with the largest increase occurring in low- and middle-income countries . Over a quarter of patients (212 million) in 2022 lived in India, 148 million in China, followed by the US (42 million), Pakistan (36 million), Indonesia (25 million) and Brazil (22 million ).

The countries with the highest rates of patients with diabetes in 2022 (25% or more of the population had diabetes) were Pacific Island countries, countries located in the Caribbean, the Middle East and North Africa, as well as Pakistan and Malaysia. In the US diabetes rates in 2022 were 11.4% in women and 13.6% in men. According to the study, a major factor in increasing rates of type 2 diabetes is obesity and poor diet.

The countries with the lowest diabetes rates in 2022 they are found in western Europe and eastern Africa for both sexes and in Japan and Canada for women. For example, diabetes rates in 2022 were just 2-4% for women in France, Denmark, Spain, Switzerland and Sweden and 3-5% for men in Denmark, France, Uganda, Kenya , Malawi, Spain and Rwanda.

Without treatment, 59% of those who are ill

During the same period, diabetes cure rates remained stagnant and at low levels in many of the low- and middle-income countries, in which disease rates have risen sharply.

The result is that 445 million adults aged 30 and over with diabetes worldwide (59% of patients) will be untreated in 2022, three and a half times the number in 1990.

In contrast, those living in Canada, South Korea, and countries in central and western Europe and parts of Latin America, eastern Asia, and the Pacific saw significant improvement in diabetes treatment rates from 1990 to 2022. The highest treatment rates noted in Belgium, where 86% of women and 77% of men received treatment. As a result of these trends, the gap between countries with the highest and lowest treatment coverage for diabetes has widened significantly. Notably, in some sub-Saharan African countries only 5-10% of adults with diabetes received treatment in 2022.

The study’s authors point out that the analysis highlights the urgent need for funding for drugs and comprehensive diabetes programs that enable early detection and effective treatment in low- and middle-income countries.

The authors acknowledge some limitations of their study, including the fact that most of the research data did not distinguish between type 1 and type 2 diabetes in adults. In addition, some countries had very little or in some cases no data, and estimates for them were more informed by data from other countries.