By CAROL MATROO Sunday, November 15 2009

Diabetes is still escalating and adolescents are no longer exempt from developing this chronic non-communicable disease (CNCD).

Health Minister Jerry Narace said there was cause for concern as there was a rise of diabetes in teens and young people, the cause of which he said was due to a significant change in their dietary patterns.

Speaking during a leadership forum of regional health authorities at Amphitheatre A at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, Mt Hope, yesterday, and promoting World Diabetes Day, Narace said the number of obese children in schools has increased because of their decreased consumption of fibre and a marked increase in consuming foods with saturated fats and salt, sugary soft drinks and physical inactivity.

The minister said there has been a marked increase in the incidence of CNCDs worldwide, with diabetes being ranked as the fourth leading cause of death globally.

He said according to the International Diabetes Federation there were an estimated 30 million people with diabetes in 1985 while in 2009, there were 285 million people with the disease, representing a nine-fold increase in diabetes. “This figure is expected to rise to 438 million within the next 20 years with an estimate of seven million people developing diabetes each year. It is estimated that over 344 million people are at risk for Type II diabetes and in 2005 alone an estimated 1.1 million people died from diabetes,” he said.

Narace noted that diabetes was a major cause of admissions to hospitals as there are many types of complications that accompanied the disease.

He said diabetes caused damage to the heart, blood vessels and the eyes. It also increased the risk of heart disease and strokes with 50 percent of people with diabetes dying from those diseases, and, after 15 years, two percent of people with diabetes go blind.

“Not only are these global statistics frightening, but the burden of diabetes on health care systems across the world is also cause for concern. It is estimated that the cost of diabetes complications account for five to ten percent of total spending on health care globally.

“In the Caribbean and Latin America, CNCDs continue to rise and are now the leading cause of premature mortalities accounting for nearly half of the deaths of persons under 70 years and for two out of three deaths overall,” Narace said.

He said diabetes and related diseases continued to extract a heavy human and economic cost to a nation. He said CNCDs accounted for 60 percent of deaths and the societal cost of diabetes alone in the Caribbean and Latin America was estimated at US$65 billion in 2000.

Narace also noted that Trinidad and Tobago has one of the highest mortality rates in the Caribbean and Latin America for diabetes, which was ten times higher than that of Canada or the United States. He said it was estimated that one in every eight adults has diabetes and it was even possible that the statistics may be one in every five adults. He said the risk factors for diabetes were largely based on lifestyle and were therefore modifiable, citing obesity, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity and alcohol abuse.

“The ministry has been doing its part to address the problem of diabetes with the focus on prevention of risk factors, health promotion, early detection and treatment and early detection of disability management and rehabilitation. Diabetes remains a disease that is primarily the result of lifestyle choices and the onus is on every individual to take diabetes prevention message to heart and take steps to get active, maintain a normal body weight, make healthier food choices, avoid tobacco use and misuse of alcohol,” Narace said.



Caption:

Health Minister Jerry Narace.