Increase in obesity to blame for big rise in diabetic mortality rate

A new study has claimed that the dramatic increase in obesity in the UK is affecting the amount of deaths recorded from diabetes. The research, carried out by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), showed that mortality rates from type 2 diabetes have risen five-fold for Scottish women who are aged less than 50 since 1990, mainly due to the rise in obesity levels for women in that age group.
For the same age group, the research, which was published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, found that for men in the same age group the rate nearly doubled. The research revealed that found that the mortality rate from diabetes for women in Scotland under 50 went up from 0.22 deaths per 100,000 in 1990 to 1.02 in 2009, with the rate for men rising from 0.75 in 1990 to 1.38 in 2009.
The report argued that many of the deaths would not be happening if there was more timely and effective healthcare, as diabetes is a treatable condition but the increasing rate of overweight patients developing the condition younger than before can be explained by obesity.
Martin McKee, professor of European public health at the LSHTM, commented “People should not be dying at relatively young ages from diabetes
– that is the key thing.”
He added “Health systems nowadays should be able to keep them alive. What we are able to say from this data is that we need to look in more detail at exactly what is happening.”