1.3billion people are forecast to be living with diabetes by 2050. Experts says diabetes cases are set to “grow aggressively” in every country and among every age group.
By 2050 more than one in eight of the global population – 1.3bn – will have diabetes, a study predicts. This is more than double the 529 million cases in 2021, reports The Mirror.
Dr Shivani Agarwal, of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, said: “Diabetes remains one of the biggest public health threats of our time and is set to grow aggressively over the coming three decades in every country, age group and sex, posing a serious challenge to healthcare systems.”
Earlier this year, Diabetes UK analysis showed 4.3 million people have been diagnosed with the condition and an estimated 850,000 are living with it but have not yet been formally diagnosed.
About nine in 10 cases of diabetes in the UK are type 2 diabetes, linked to unhealthy lifestyles. Chris Askew, chief executive of Diabetes UK, said: “This important study underlines the sheer scale of the diabetes crisis we’re facing. We know in the UK, type 2 diabetes does not affect everyone equally.
“Your ethnicity, where you live and your income all affect your chances of getting type 2 diabetes, the care you receive and your long-term health, and these are all interlinked. The need for concerted cross-government action has never been more urgent.”
The new paper was published in The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology journal.
