causes, morbidity and mortality – Picture of the day – Kommersant

Today, November 14, is World Diabetes Day. This is a chronic disease in which the body does not produce the right amount of insulin, the hormone that regulates blood sugar, or uses it inefficiently. According to WHO, diabetes increases the risk of heart attack and stroke by two to three times. Incidence statistics in Russia and the world – in six graphs.

By data World Health Organization (WHO), from 1980 to 2014, the number of patients with diabetes has almost quadrupled – from 108 million to 422 million people. The disease spreads fastest in countries where the wages of citizens remain low. By estimated International Diabetes Federation (IDF), they account for at least 75% of all diagnoses.

According to the Russian Ministry of Health, in our country registered 5.2 million cases of diabetes. Rosstat has calculated that 300-400 thousand new patients appear per year. Experts suggest that the real number of cases is much higher than 5 million – about 10.5 million people. Russians do not always pass all the necessary tests and simply do not know their diagnosis.

Undetected and uncontrolled, diabetes causes blindness, kidney failure, heart disease, strokes, gangrene, and limb amputations.

Diabetes was responsible for 6.7 million deaths globally last year — one death every five seconds, according to the IDF. The poorer the country, the higher the chances of dying from the disease. WHO estimates that between 2000 and 2019, deaths from diabetes increased by 13% in low-income regions.

Many people with diabetes need to take insulin, a hormone that regulates blood glucose, on a regular basis. In some countries, spending on it is unbearable. By estimated Fund, two-thirds of uninsured American adults spend $900 a month on insulin—nearly a week earnings American.

By counting marketing agency DSM Group, in September 2022, sales of hypoglycemic drugs in Russia amounted to 97.7 thousand packs, and the total amount of purchases was 147.7 million rubles. It turns out that a pack costs an average of 1511 rubles.

Type 1 diabetes cannot be prevented. It is formed in childhood or adolescence. Causes not understood, but doctors suspect genes and environmental factors. Now such diabetes accounts for no more than 5% of all diseases.

Type 2 diabetes often develops in old age. The IDF estimates that about 541 million adults aged 20 to 79 are at risk. The main cause of type 2 diabetes is obesity and an unbalanced diet. Doctors warn that contrary to stereotypes, hamburgers and fatty foods are just as dangerous as sweets.

It is believed that type 2 diabetes can be completely prevented or delayed for a considerable time. As a preventive measure, doctors recommend controlling weight, exercising for at least 30 minutes, giving up tobacco, and reducing sugar and saturated fat intake.

Valentina Peterkova, Scientific Director of the Institute of Pediatric Endocrinology, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences:

– The only reason for the increase in mortality is the only one that has been written about a lot – the coronavirus pandemic. Before the mass spread of covid in the country, mortality in the group of patients with diabetes, on the contrary, decreased, the level of insulin and other types of treatment, prevention of this disease, and control over its course became so effective. For example, for almost ten years we have not registered cases of death of children from hypoglycemia – excessively low sugar levels. But during the pandemic, it was diabetics with other autoimmune diseases, as well as overweight people, who became the main target of the virus. Mortality in this risk group was several times higher than the rest, well, maybe there was a group of severe cardiac patients nearby.

Elena Fedotova