Key Points
The number of people living with diabetes worldwide will more than double from 529 million in 2021 to more than 1.3 billion in 2050, with no country expected to see a decline in diabetes rates over the next 30 years, new estimates published in the Lancet have revealed...
Structural racism and geographic inequity are accelerating this global crisis of diabetes, with rates of diabetes among minority ethnic groups in high-income countries, like the USA, 1.5 times higher than among their white counterparts and diabetes death rates in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) double that in high-income countries...
In high-income countries (HICs) like the USA, rates of diabetes are almost 1.5 times higher among minority ethnic groups compared to white populations, fuelled by structural racism, the Lancet said..
According to the researchers the Covid-19 pandemic has amplified diabetes inequity globally, with people with diabetes 50% more likely to develop severe infection and twice as likely to die compared to those without diabetes, especially those from ethnic minority groups...
"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 health-care systems worldwide," says Series leader Dr Shivani Agarwal, Fleischer Institute for Diabetes and Metabolism, Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Health System, USA..
