29 Jul Increased Number of People With Diabetes Primarily Due To Type 2 Diabetics Living Longer

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Stephanie Read, PhD
University of Edinburgh, UK

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Response: The number of people living with type 2 diabetes in Scotland is increasing. We wanted to identify to what extent this trend was due to people living longer with type 2 diabetes or due to increasing numbers of new cases each year.

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Response: We found that the number of new cases each year was stable between 2004 and 2013, while the numbers of people dying with type 2 diabetes declined. However, there were some important differences in these trends by age and deprivation status. The number of older people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes each year declined while the number of young people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes increased or remained stable during the study period. Among the most deprived people the number of new cases of type 2 diabetes increased after 2010 leading to widening inequalities.

We found that although people with type 2 diabetes are living longer than before, there has been no reduction in the excess risk of death in people with type 2 diabetes compared to people without diabetes.

MedicalResearch.com: What should readers take away from your report?

Response: The growing numbers of people with type 2 diabetes in Scotland is primarily related to people with type 2 diabetes living longer rather than increasing numbers of new cases. However, these trends are not observed across all age and deprivation groups.

MedicalResearch.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?

Response: It is important to identify whether improving survival among people with type 2 diabetes in recent years is due to improved treatments or because newly-diagnosed people with type 2 diabetes have different characteristics to those who were diagnosed previously. Explanations for the observed lack of change in the excess risk of death in people with type 2 diabetes compared to people without diabetes need to be sought also.

MedicalResearch.com: Thank you for your contribution to the MedicalResearch.com community.

Citation

Stephanie H. Read, Joannes J. Kerssens, David A. McAllister, Helen M. Colhoun, Colin M. Fischbacher, Robert S. Lindsay, Rory J. McCrimmon, John A. McKnight, John R. Petrie, Naveed Sattar, Sarah H. Wild. Trends in type 2 diabetes incidence and mortality in Scotland between 2004 and 2013. Diabetologia, 2016; DOI: 10.1007/s00125-016-4054-9

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Last Updated on July 29, 2016 by Marie Benz MD FAAD