Nearly one in two Chinese have diabetes or are likely to get it, making country’s epidemic the world’s biggest
Country has rates of the metabolic illness on a par with those of the United States
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 28 June, 2017, 7:01pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 28 June, 2017, 7:01pm
Patients eat lunch at a weigh reduction clinic in Tianjin, China. The country is facing the biggest diabetes epidemic in the world. Photo: AFP
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China is facing the largest diabetes epidemic in the world, with around 11 per cent of its population suffering from the metabolic illness and nearly 36 per cent pre-diabetic, according to a US study.
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The survey, which included 170,287 participants and was conducted in 2013, was analysed with the assistance of Linhong Wang from the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention and was published in the
Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
Researchers measured levels of fasting plasma glucose of each participant. Those with levels of 126 milligrams per decilitre or higher were defined as diabetic, while those with levels between 105 and 126 mg/dl were defined as pre-diabetic. People who are pre-diabetic have higher than normal blood sugar levels and without lifestyle changes are at high risk of suffering diabetes.
One in three of world’s adults with diabetes is in China, WHO reports
Hyperglycemia is a result of two anomalies – a malfunction of the pancreas which creates insulin, or the resistance of the body to this hormone. Among the diabetic population in China, 36.5 per cent were aware of their diagnosis and 32.2 per cent were receiving treatment. Among those being treated, 49.2 per cent had adequate glycemic control.
Barely one in three diabetes sufferers in China are aware they have the condition. Photo: Shutterstock
Tibetan and Muslim Chinese had significantly lower prevalence of diabetes compared to the majority Han population (14.7 per cent for Han Chinese, 4.3 per cent for Tibetan Chinese, and 10.6 per cent for Muslim Chinese).
The adult diabetic rate in China of 10.9 per cent is close to that of the United States – 9.3 per cent according to 2014 figures recorded by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. The Chinese prediabetic rate of 35.7 per cent was also close to the US rate of 37 per cent recorded in 2014.
With approximately 1.09 billion adults in China, some 388.1 million were projected to be pre-diabetic (200.4 million men and 187.7 million women).
Chinese adults diagnosed with diabetes live nine years less on average
Diabetes is a growing public health problem throughout the world. Some 422 million adults worldwide had diabetes in 2014, compared to 108 million in 1980, according to a report published by the World Health Organisation in 2016. Diabetes rates have increased more rapidly in low- and middle-income countries.
Diabetes is a major cause of blindness, kidney failure, heart attacks and lower limb amputations, according to the WHO. In 2012, an estimated 1.5 million deaths were directly caused by diabetes and another 2.2 million deaths were attributable to high blood glucose, according to the report. AFP
The micro-needle vaccine patch. Photo: Georgia Tech
Painless, throwaway patch could replace syringe for vaccine delivery, trial shows
Vaccines delivered via a painless, throwaway patch could one day eliminate the need for needle-and-syringe flu injections, researchers have found after completing a preliminary trial.
Equipped with micro-needles, the patches vaccinated against influenza just as effectively as a standard flu jab, they reported in the medical journal The Lancet.
How skin patch can diagnose your health while you sweat
“This bandage-strip-sized patch of dissolvable needles can transform how we get vaccinated,” said Roderic Pettigrew, director of the US National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, which funded the study. The new technology can be self-administered and stored without refrigeration, making it significantly cheaper than traditional vaccines.
“It holds promise for delivering other vaccines in the future,” Pettigrew added.
Georgia Tech’s Professor Mark Prausnitz holds up a micro-needle vaccine patch containing needles that dissolve into the skin. Photo: Christopher Moore, Georgia Tech
A hundred tiny needles – just long enough to penetrate the skin – embedded in each patch dissolve within minutes when exposed to moisture from the body. Adhesive holds the patch close to the skin while the vaccine is released; it can be peeled away after 20 minutes and discarded.
In first-phase clinical trials, researchers from Emory University in Georgia and the Georgia Institute of Technology randomly divided 100 adults into four groups. Three received the micro-needle patches: one delivered by a health care provider; one self-administered; and the third – delivered by a nurse – a placebo without any active ingredients. The fourth group received a classic flu jab with a syringe.
A researcher applies a vaccine needle patch to a person’s wrist as part of a clinical trial. Photo: Rob Felt, Georgia Tech.
All the active flu vaccines worked equally well for at least six months, regardless of whether they were delivered by professionals or the patient, or whether they were administered by a syringe or a micro-needle. AFP
(20min delay)