‘Alarming’: Study finds 44% of people with diabetes don’t know they have it
A new study has found that while one in nine people globally live with diabetes, almost half don’t even know they have the disease.
The study of data from more than 204 countries and territories between 2000 and 2023 found 44 per cent of people 15 years and older with diabetes are undiagnosed.
“It is a very alarming number,” said Lauryn Stafford, lead author of the study at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.
According to the study’s findings, of those living with diabetes, about 56 per cent are aware they have the condition globally, but the rate differs depending on each country.
The rate of diagnosis sits at about 85 per cent in Canada, but there’s many factors that go into how many are diagnosed in a country.
“It depends on where people live but some of the main factors include not having access to normal health care, especially primary care, so people aren’t getting their regular glucose tests every year,” she said.
“There’s different socioeconomic constraints or maybe some people live in a rural area or in low- and middle-income countries where there’s just not a lot of health-care personnel, not a lot of diagnostic tests.”
The research also found that young people were less likely to be diagnosed with only about 20 per cent aware of their condition.
“Traditionally the prevalence or the frequency of diabetes rises with age and so approximately one in 10 adults, which is people over the age of 20 in Canada, have diabetes, but about one in five over age 65,” said Dr. Hertzel Gerstein, a diabetes specialist and endocrinologist.
But Gerstein cautioned that while rates are higher among older adults, those under age 50 are seeing an increase in diagnosis rates.
An article published by the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) in August 2024 found the annual incidence rate of Type 2 diabetes in Canada is 50 to 150 per 100,000 people aged 20 to 29 years and is “rapidly rising.”
While places like Canada have higher rates of diagnosis, many countries still recommend routine diabetes screenings for those 35 and older. Diabetes Canada says those 40 and over should be tested at least every three years due to higher risk, though it adds risk factors such as family history should also prompt screening.
Asked if screening should change for younger age groups, Gerstein said the best policy is for a health-care provider to use their clinical judgment, including looking for “yellow flags.”
“These yellow flags include things such as a very strong family history, if they happen to be overweight, but not really just overweight, if they happen to have a lot of extra weight in their abdomen and in their face, the so-called abdominal or apple-shaped weight distribution,” Gerstein said.
He added certain ancestry and ethnic origins can also have a higher rate of diabetes, saying the disease is more common at younger ages in people with South Asian or North African ancestry, as well as in Canada’s Indigenous people.
Going without diagnosis can be harmful to a person’s health, but BC Diabetes medical director Dr. Tom Elliott said it can be difficult to catch early enough.
“The first five years of diabetes is silent, there’s no symptoms,” he said. “During those silent five-plus years, the bodies are getting damaged, damage to the nerves, the kidneys, the eyes, the blood vessels.”
If left untreated or treated poorly, Diabetes Canada says the disease can cause kidney disease, heart disease and stroke, mental health issues, and nerve damage that could lead to infection and even limb amputation.
However, while “silent,” there are still things people can look for as a potential sign.
The organization says symptoms such as unusual thirst, frequent urination, blurred vision or weight gain or loss are common signs, but senior director of policy Laura O’Driscoll said those health issues can also be associated with other conditions.
“So it’s usually when all the symptoms come together, but really the best metric we have is the blood test,” she said. “And then sometimes a doctor will order more depending on kind of what your blood work comes back as.”
Even with recommendations for screening after age 40, O’Driscoll told Global News people should still advocate for their own screening if concerned.
“When you are getting blood work, just ask them to include in that your HbA1c, so that is your glucose levels or the sugar levels in your blood over a three month period and that gives a representation of whether or not you are at that pre-diabetes threshold or that Type 2 diabetes threshold,” she said.
—with files from Global News’ Amandalina Letterio
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