Global diabetes cases could soar to 1.3 billion by 2050, new study says

The number of people living with diabetes will double worldwide in the next 30 years, according to a new global study.

The number of people living with diabetes could double worldwide in the next 30 years, according to a new global study.

Cases are expected to soar from 529 million to 1.3 billion by 2050 mostly because there is no current effective mitigation strategy to tackle or reduce the disease, found the study published Thursday in The Lancet and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

While the number of cases is expected to increase in each country, the growth will be unequal.

Researchers stated rates in North Africa and the Middle East are projected to increase to 16.8 per cent from the current 9.3 per cent and 11.3 per cent in Latin America and the Caribbean by 2050. Compared to 9.5 per cent globally from the current 6.1 per cent.

The researchers say could be due to various factors including underfunded and ill-prepared health-care systems, and socioeconomic challenges such as poor nutrition, poverty and physical inactivity.

The growing number of people with diabetes is in part because of rising obesity, but also demographic shifts as the disease is most commonly found among older adults, the study showed.

The study looked at 204 countries and territories across 25 age groups, males and females separately and combined, and found the majority of the cases, globally, are type 2 diabetes, the form of the disease linked to obesity.