TORONTO, August 26, 2003 – With diabetes named as the next world pandemic putting more than 300 million people at risk by 2025, health care experts need to look at more than just poor diet and a lack of exercise as the main causes, says Dennis Raphael, associate professor at York University's School of Health Policy & Management.
In a report released yesterday to the International Diabetes Federation conference in Paris, researchers warned that Type II or "adult" diabetes is increasing and estimated costs could reach between $214 and $396 billion within 20 years. In some of the hardest-hit countries, the economic impact will be higher than AIDS, said one researcher.
Prof. Raphael said focussing on traditional factors associated with Type II diabetes masks the fact that people in lower income groups -- especially women and their children -- are more at risk than other groups.
"Type II diabetes -- the most prevalent type -- appears to be related to a variety of factors that fall outside the usual preoccupation with diet and lifestyle changes," says Raphael. "These include increasing income inequality, the increasing prevalence of poverty and marginalization, and the weakening of social safety nets in Canada and around the world."
Prof. Raphael, who is also director of the undergraduate program at York's School of Health Policy & Management, has written extensively on societal factors affecting the rate of disease in North America's population. In his most recent article drawing on the growing literature in this field, he details how social conditions impact both people's risk of developing Type II diabetes and their ability to manage this chronic disease.
Citing figures that show women in low-income groups are four times more likely to develop diabetes than those in higher income categories, Prof. Raphael says the societal factors put children at risk before birth and throughout their life span. Once affected by the disease, people in low-income groups are also less able to manage their condition by eating healthier foods and participating in recreational activities. A major study into people's predisposition to Type II diabetes (obesity, cholesterol levels and blood pressure among others) showed that conventional factors such as diet and exercise failed to account for 90 per cent of variations in the findings.
By the year 2010, Health Canada predicts as many as 4 million Canadians will be affected by Type II diabetes causing a dramatic increase in the mortality rate. Five thousand people died from the disease in 1999 and the mortality rate has been rising since 1986.
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