Diabetes cases to double in the next 25 years: US study

WASHINGTON - The number of diabetes cases is estimated to almost double in the next 25 years, suggests a new US study.

The study led by researchers from University of Chicago has revealed that the number of Americans living with diabetes is likely to increase from 23.7 million in 2009 to 44.1 million in 2034.

Moreover, the money spend on diabetes will almost triple, rising from 113 billion dollars to 336 billion dollars in the same period.

“If we don’t change our diet and exercise habits or find new, more effective and less expensive ways to prevent and treat diabetes, we will find ourselves in a lot of trouble as a population,” said the study’s lead author Dr Elbert Huang, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Chicago.

“Without significant changes in public or private strategies,” the authors wrote, “this population and cost growth are expected to add a significant strain to an overburdened health care system,” Huang added.

However, it is believed that the prevalence of the overweight and obese in the United States will remain relatively stable.

Although obesity levels have gone up steadily for many years, the authors predict that the obesity levels for the non-diabetic population will top out in the next decade, then decline slightly, from 30 percent today to about 27 percent by 2033.

“Despite recent trends in obesity rates we anticipate that the population will reach an equilibrium in obesity levels, since we cannot all become obese,” Huang added.

The study appears in journal Diabetes Care. (ANI)