More young people are expected to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in the next twenty years, adding more than a billion dollars to the public cost of the disease, a new report said.
The multi-agency report
outlines the growing costs and inequality in continuing standard diabetes care. It highlights actions the government could take to save hundreds of millions of dollars, increase life expectancy and improve the quality of life for diabetic kiwis.
The SMC asked experts to comment on the report.
Professor Pamela von Hurst, College of Health, Massey University; Commented the President of the Nutrition Society of New Zealand:
“This report confirms what dieters and registered nutritionists already know so well – that diet and lifestyle intervention conducted by a qualified nutritionist can not only stop the progression of a disease like type 2 diabetes, but often reverse it. Taking the professional guidance of a private practitioner, many people successfully lose weight and change the course of their health.
“Unfortunately, as the report explains, such effective interventions are inaccessible to the people who need them most. This inequality in the provision of services will lead to an increasing burden of disease in high-risk populations until funding is directed towards the early identification of risks and targeted, individual prevention strategies. “
No conflict of interest.
Respected Professor Geoff Chase, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Center for Bioengineering, Canterbury University, comments:
“Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is known but not seen everywhere and nowhere. It is also a “juggernaut,” a merciless, unstoppable force. Health systems already facing significant pressures and a growing lack of equity in access to care will come under pressure under the growing weight of T2D. Worse still, the hit will be socio-economically unevenly distributed and hit the most vulnerable people the hardest.
“While T2D is not climate change, it poses an existential threat and requires the same kind of societal ‘fulcrum’ and effort just to keep our heads above water.
“The high personal, social and economic costs of T2D require significant innovation, as does (or more than) the incremental focus of the interventions proposed in the report. However, there is no real mention of how innovation could be used to drive solutions that cut costs significantly and improve life.
“Increasing activity and advanced medication both have difficult side effects and are not ‘sticky’ (technically, persistence and adherence). I think the real answer lies in innovation-driven, extremely cost-effective and high-quality solutions that work within the real life that people lead socially, culturally and economically.
“The ‘Moloch’ will not be beaten by more effort and persistence in doing the same things, but by disruptive changes to reverse the negative economics and results, or by innovation, not evolution.”
No conflict of interest indicated.
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