Looking at the prevalence and incidence rate of diabetes worldwide, one will notice that it has been a major health problem. This explains why diabetes ranks among the first four killer diseases in the world today.

Diabetes mellitus was reported to be the fifth places in the United States as a cause of death from diseases. The American Diabetes Association estimates that ten million people may have diabetes mellitus, with one-third undiagnosed because the individual has none of the common symptoms.

A special study by Tokustiata in Pennsylvania reports that in twelfth month period, 2640 disease were officially reported as diseases caused by Diabetes Mellitus ad those diseases were recorded as a contributing cause in an additional 7531 deaths, while about 2000 residents had actually been diagnosed as having diabetes mellitus. Another report by Pyke indicated that diabetes mellitus affect at least one person in 75 in the population of Great Britain and the United State more or less severely.

A flunky of papers has recently drawn attention to the growing problem of diabetes in the Middle East. These have appeared in the prestigious British Diabetes Journal of Diabetic Medicine. ‘It is gratifying for us at Insulin Dependent Diabetes (IDD) to see the problems of diabetes in our circulation areas receiving attention in even more learned volume than our own’ Oman in 1995 reported on a World Health Organization; WHO assisted national Diabetes epidemiology survey carried out in 1991.

Using a large and well constructed glucose tolerance test (GTT) base method, the workers found a ten percent overall disease Diabetes rates, rising to over thirty percent in the elderly. Impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) was found in thirteen percent females and eight percent of males. An Egyptian study published sometime ago, revealed a Diabetes prevalence of 9.3 percent in Cairo and its surrounding areas.

SInce it has become certain that diabetes is very much around, we will do ourselves the greatest good by taking necessary steps to control, manage and treat this killer disease.

To put the problem of diabetes to a reasonable level, if not cured entirely, below are some helpful tips:

Dietary management. Dietary measures are required in the treatment of all diabetic patients in order to achieve the overall therapeutic goal.

Endeavor to exercise yourself as much as possible.

Results from a prospective cohort study carried out at a hospital in the Bronx area of New York in the USA suggest that many patients without diagnosed diabetes have abnormally high glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels and are at increased risk for Type 2 diabetes.

“Hospital-based HbA1c testing might identify patients for whom further testing is indicated to make the diagnosis of diabetes,” suggest the researchers.

Charles Nordin (Jacobi Medical Center, Bronx, New York, USA) and colleagues tested HbA1c levels of 971 patients admitted to the general medicine service of a Bronx hospital over a 4-month period.

The team checked records for prior diagnosis of diabetes and other relevant data and followed-up patients who had repeat testing of HbA1c or glucose within 1 year of admission.

The Bronx area has a diabetes prevalence that is one of the highest in the USA and in line with this 342 (35.2%) patients tested had diabetes.

A normal HbA1c is generally considered to be below 6%. The mean HbA1c of the remaining cohort (n=629) was 6.05%. Of these patients, 152 (24%) had an admission HbA1c of at least 6.5% and 62 (9.9%) had an HbA1c of at least 7.0%.

In total, 55 of the patients with an admission HbA1c of at least 6.5% had a follow-up HbA1c test within 1 year, at which point 44 (88%) patients met the criteria for diabetes proposed by The International Expert Committee using repeated HbA1c testing.

“Our study supports the hypothesis that HbA1c testing on the inpatient service of a public hospital in a high-risk community can help to identify patients at risk for diabetes,” conclude the authors in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

The researchers caution that use of single HbA1c measurements for diagnosing diabetes is unwise as factors such as hospital admission can significantly influence HbA1c levels.

They add: “Further studies will be needed to determine the role of inpatient HbA1c testing for diagnosis and treatment of diabetes.”

MedWire (www.medwire-news.md) is an independent clinical news service provided by Current Medicine Group, a trading division of Springer Healthcare Limited. © Springer Healthcare Ltd; 2010

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