The number of new cases of type 2 diabetes may be declining, research suggests. Australian scientists looked at 47 studies carried out from the 1960s to 2014, largely across the US, Canada and Europe. More than a third (36 per cent) of these populations saw a fall in the number of new cases between 2006 and 2014, while another third had diagnoses stabilise. The scientists credit increased 'health awareness', with 'bike tracks and exercise parks' becoming commonplace, along with a reduction in fizzy drink consumption. However, other experts stress obesity - a key driver of type 2 diabetes - is still a 'significant' concern as rates continue to spiral across the world. The research was carried out by the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute in Melbourne.
More than 100million adults in the US live with diabetes or prediabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Prediabetes is defined as a person's blood sugar levels being higher than normal but not elevated enough to be considered diabetes. And in the UK, 3.8million people have been diagnosed with diabetes, Diabetes UK statistics show. In both nations, more than 90 per cent of diabetics have type 2, which is associated with being overweight or obese.
To uncover how rates of the disease are changing, the researchers looked at studies that were mainly carried out in high-income countries. Between 1960 and 1989, 36 per cent of the populations saw type 2 diabetes rise, the team reported in the British Medical Journal. During this time, the disease remained stable in 55 per cent of the populations, while nine per cent saw cases go down. From 1990-to-2005, the number of new cases rose in two-thirds (66 per cent) of the populations studied, was stable in 32 per cent and went down in just two per cent. The number of new cases started to slow between 2006 and 2014, when only a third (33 per cent) of populations saw cases rise, with 30 per cent staying the same and 36 per cent declining.
