Diabetes Complications
- It is a chronic, incurable, costly disease that is largely preventable through lifestyle changes. Diabetes is responsible for millions of deaths annually and incalculable human misery from debilitating complications, especially cardiovascular disease (CVD) as shown in Table 003 .1-3
- Diabetes kills and disables, impoverishes families, imposes a huge economic burden on governments and businesses, and overwhelms the health system. It affects rich and poor, young and old alike.
- Diabetes is among the top 10 causes of disability worldwide. Tens of millions of people with diabetes suffer disabling and life-threatening complications such as heart disease, stroke, lower limb amputations, blindness and visual impairment, and kidney failure. In many countries, diabetes is the most common cause of kidney failure and lower limb amputation. 1
- WHO estimates that 15 million people are blind as a result of diabetes, the majority of them are in low- and middle-income countries.
- Approximately half of all diabetes in India is undiagnosed compared to one-third in the US.4, 5 6 Complications continue to mount in people with undiagnosed diabetes at a faster rate than those with diagnosed and treated diabetes.
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14. Mather HM, Chaturvedi N, Fuller JH. Mortality and morbidity from diabetes in South Asians and Europeans: 11- year follow-up of the Southall Diabetes Survey, London, UK. Diabet Med. 1998;15(1):53-59.
15. Forouhi NG, Sattar N, Tillin T, McKeigue PM, Chaturvedi N. Do known risk factors explain the higher coronary heart disease mortality in South Asian compared with European men? Prospective follow-up of the Southall and Brent studies, UK. Diabetologia. Nov 2006;49(11):2580-2588.
16. Karter AJ, Ferrara A, Liu JY, Moffet HH, Ackerson LM, Selby JV. Ethnic disparities in diabetic complications in an insured population. Jama. 2002;287(19):2519-2527.