Scotland 'in grip of diabetes epidemic'

EXPERTS have warned that Scotland is the grip of a diabetes "epidemic" after new figures revealed the number of people with the disease is rising by almost 200 a week. There are now 220,000 Scots suffering from diabetes – 4.3 per cent of the population.

In the past 12 months, the number of people diagnosed with the condition has risen by 10,000, according to data revealed at the Edinburgh International Science Festival yesterday.

Most of the increase is due to the soaring rate of type 2 diabetes, which mostly affects the middle-aged. It is strongly linked to lifestyle factors such as being overweight or obese, being sedentary and having a poor diet.

According to the Scottish Diabetes Register, there were 209,706 patients reported to be living with the condition in 2007. But draft figures for last year suggest that figure has jumped to 219,963. This is the equivalent of more than 28 people a day being added to the official statistics.

Dr John McKnight, a consultant physician at the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh and an honorary lecturer at Edinburgh University, told The Scotsman that cases of the disease were increasing worldwide.

He said the causes of type 2 diabetes included genetic factors as well as people taking less exercise and putting on weight. But a major factor was the ageing population, which was helping to boost the increase.

"People carrying excess weight are more likely to get diabetes," Dr McKnight said. "But there is a genetic element to it, which is recognised.

"There is also an age element. As you get older, you can make less insulin and your blood sugar tends to rise. The fact that our population is living longer is one of the reasons for this epidemic of diabetes."

In addition to the 220,000 who have been diagnosed, it is estimated more than 90,000 people in Scotland have diabetes but do not know it yet. Across the UK, the number of diabetics is set to rise to 4.2 million by 2026.

With Scotland already estimated to be spending £1 billion a year treating the disease and its complications, the continued rise in diagnoses is a major concern for a cash-strapped NHS.

The health service is estimated to spend £10,000 a minute treating diabetes and related conditions. This is about a tenth of its total budget.

Experts have predicted that, as budgets tighten, the NHS will face increasingly difficult choices over treatments and drugs.

Diabetics are five times more likely to suffer heart attacks and strokes than other people.

The condition, in which the body is unable, or struggles, to convert sugar into energy, also raises the risk of blindness, kidney disease and nerve and circulatory damage which, at its most severe, can lead to amputations.

Type 2 diabetes accounts for some 87 per cent of cases. Type 1 diabetes is usually diagnosed early in life.

The Scottish Diabetes Survey has shown annual increases in the number of people recorded with diabetes. In 2003, 134,000 were said to have diabetes, and the figure has jumped every year since then.

Dr McKnight, who chairs the survey group, said part of the increase was probably down to better recording of diabetes, as well as the age and weight-gain factors.

Better treatments for the disease mean that more people are surviving with diabetes, he said, adding to the overall total of people with the condition.

Dr McKnight said the NHS was working well to care for people with diabetes, but that work would need to be scaled up in future due to the increase in the number of cases.

"It can be quite damaging to health," he said. "It can affect the eyes, the kidneys and predispose you to heart attacks and strokes as well as to amputations."

Jane-Claire Judson, national director of Diabetes UK Scotland, said: "These new figures are concerning and confirm that diabetes is one of the main health challenges facing Scotland.

"Awareness and prevention are crucial if we want to avert this future health crisis and see the number of people with type 2 diabetes fall. We need to encourage people to reduce their risk of developing the condition by eating healthily, maintaining a healthy weight and leading an active lifestyle."

A spokesman for the Scottish Government said: "We are in the process of revising our 'diabetes action plan 2006' and prevention of type 2 diabetes will be one of the main issues considered in the forthcoming consultation."

Scotland isn't only 'hotspot' – disease is worldwide issue

CASES of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes are increasing around the world, with experts predicting these rises will continue.

A report in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2007 reported that there were around 28.3 million cases of diabetes in Europe in 2000.

But by 2030, this is predicted to rise to 37.4 million.

Dr John McKnight, a consultant physician in Edinburgh, said that, in India, the figure was expected to rise from 32 million people to 79 million by 2030.

"There's a huge concern about this epidemic, particularly in some of the less developed countries," he said.

In Scotland, health organisations have been preparing for future increases in diabetes.

Last year, a report by NHS Quality Improvement Scotland said that the number of people diagnosed with diabetes was doubling every decade.

Over 80 per cent of people with diabetes in Scotland are overweight or obese.

Diabetes can lead to a host of complications, costly to both the NHS and the individual. It is a major cause of stroke and coronary heart disease and the leading cause of blindness in people aged 20 to 74.

The condition is a major cause of kidney failure and can lead to patients having to have a limb amputated.

Diabetes can also cause problems in pregnancy.

RISING TOLL

Number of people recorded on diabetes registries with the disease in Scotland:

2003 134,000

2004 162,000

2005 173,000

2006 197,000

2007 210,000

2008 220,000