Diabetes could knock nine years off your life

January 18, 2017  10:47

Being diagnosed with diabetes when you are middle-aged could slash up to a decade off your life, according to new research.

Those diagnosed lived an average of nine years less that those without the condition, a study of more than half a million Chinese people found.

Type 2 diabetes, the kind linked with being overweight, is known to double the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

And the new research shows that those diagnosed with the condition at 50 are almost twice as likely to die before they get to 75-years-old.

The Oxford University professor who led the study warned four million British patients of the importance of following their treatment plan and adopting healthy lifestyle changes.

The new findings show diabetes also raises the risk of dying from chronic kidney disease, chronic liver disease, infection and cancer of the liver, pancreas and breast.

In China, diabetes prevalence has quadrupled in recent decades because of an increasingly sedentary, Westernised diet, with an estimated 100 million adults now affected.

Most previous studies of the disease have been in high income countries where patients are generally well managed.

Professor Zhengming Chen, of Oxford University, said: “As the prevalence of diabetes in young adults increases and the adult population grows, the annual number of deaths related to diabetes is likely to continue to increase, unless there is substantial improvement in prevention and management.”

The researchers estimated those diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 50 were almost twice as likely to die over the next 25 years compared with otherwise similar individuals.

This corresponded to an average loss of about nine years of life – eight years in urban areas rising to ten years in rural areas.

Prof Chen said: “In the UK patients are generally well managed thanks to the healthcare system, which is not the case in China, especially in rural areas.

“There is no need for them to be unnecessarily alarmed. But they must remember the importance of physical activity and a good diet. It is vital patients listen to their GP.”

The study published in JAMA included 512,869 adults aged between 30 and 79 from five rural and five urban areas scattered throughout China.

They were recruited between 2004 and 2008 and followed up until 2014.

Among the participants, six percent had diabetes – four per cent in rural areas and eight per cent in urban ones.

Three percent had been previously diagnosed, and the same number were detected by screening.

The risk of dying from inadequately treated acute complications of diabetes, such as a coma, was also much greater in rural areas, and much higher than in high income countries.

The findings follow an international study of more than 800,000 people reported five years ago which found type 2 diabetes cuts lives short by an average of six years.

Last year the number of people living with diabetes in the UK tipped over the 4 million mark for the first time.

Rates of diagnosis have soared by 65 percent over the past decade.

Prof Chen added: “Among adults in China, diabetes was associated with increased mortality from a range of cardiovascular and non cardiovascular diseases.

“Although diabetes was more common in urban areas, it was associated with greater excess mortality.”

 

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