Diabetes on Upswing Worldwide Rate in U.S. rising twice as fast
as in Western Europe, study finds SATURDAY, June 25 (HealthDay
News) -- The last quarter century has seen a such an explosion
in the incidence of diabetes that nearly 350 million people
worldwide now struggle with the disease, a new British-American
study reveals. Over the past three decades the number of adults
with diabetes has more than doubled, jumping from 153 million in
1980 to 347 million in 2008. What's more, the incidence of
diabetes in the United States is rising twice as fast as that of
Western Europe, the investigation revealed. The finding stems
from an analysis of blood samples taken from 2.7 million people
aged 25 and up living in a wide range of countries. Professor
Majid Ezzati of Imperial College London teamed up with Dr.
Goodarz Danaei of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston
and their colleagues to present their observations June 25 in
The Lancet. "Diabetes is one of the biggest causes of morbidity
and mortality worldw