TUESDAY, June 1, 2021 (HealthDay News) – Few adults with diabetes in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are receiving guideline-based comprehensive diabetes management, according to a longevity study published online on May 21 in The Lancet Healthy The Longevity.
David Flood, MD, of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and colleagues performed a cross-sectional analysis of pooled individual data from 55 nationally representative surveys to estimate the proportion of adults with diabetes in LMICs who received recommended pharmacological and non-pharmacological diabetes treatments . The final pooled sample comprised a total of 680,102 people and 37,094 people with diabetes.
The researchers found that the prevalence of diabetes was 9 percent, with 43.9 percent reporting a previous diagnosis of diabetes. Of those with diabetes, 4.6 percent said they needed all of the treatments they recommended. The coverage with blood sugar lowering drugs, blood pressure lowering drugs, cholesterol lowering drugs, nutritional advice, exercise advice and weight loss advice was 50.5, 41.3, 6.3, 32.2, 28.2 and 31.5 percent, respectively. Coverage tended to be greater in higher-income countries. Longer range associations were also found for female gender and older age, body mass index, level of education, and household wealth.
“Our results suggest that treatment not only for lowering blood sugar levels but also for treating risk factors for cardiovascular disease such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol in people with diabetes is an urgent global priority,” the authors write.
One author announced financial ties to Novo Nordisk.
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