180,000 at risk of developing diabetes

ALMOST 180,000 people in Ireland could have undetected diabetes or signs of developing the condition that can be prevented by lifestyle changes.

A major screening project undertaken by the VHI revealed that over 2,400 people either had diabetes or pre-diabetes.

It found that 63% were either overweight or obese, 64% had high cholesterol and 25% had high blood pressure.

The health insurer said the findings indicated that almost 30,000 people could have undetected type 2 diabetes and more than 146,000 people could have undetected pre-diabetes.

The project has been under way since January 2009. To date, more than 19,000 people have been screened for type-2 diabetes and cardiovascular risk factors. The programme aims to conduct a further 5,000 screenings this year.

VHI medical director, Dr Bernadette Carr, warned Ireland was facing a major diabetes epidemic in the years ahead if steps were not taken immediately to tackle the problem.

Dr Carr said pre-diabetes and diabetes could be prevented if those at risk implemented lifestyle changes.

“As individuals we have a responsibility to ourselves and our families to make the simple changes to our lifestyles that will help keep us healthy and well.”

VHI plans to invite 1,300 people identified as being of high risk of getting diabetes for a repeat screening so that the progression of their risk since their initial test can be determined. It also plans to look at intervention in a sample of high risk diabetes patients. Research has shown that intensive lifestyle intervention slows the progression of the disease.

Irish diabetes specialist, Prof John Nolan, who heads the Steno Diabetes Centre in Denmark, said the partnership between clinical researchers and the health insurance industry made it possible to design a model for prevention that could be widely applied.

Chief executive of the Diabetes Federation of Ireland, Kieran O’Leary, who welcomed the extension of the VHI initiative, said type 2 diabetes accounted for 90% of the total Irish diabetes population.

He said the scale of the diabetes problem in Ireland was unknown and there was no national register of people with diabetes.

He said the United Nations recognised diabetes as a chronic and potentially debilitating condition that poses serve risk for families worldwide. “Undiagnosed or poorly managed type 2 diabetes is the major cause of associated health complications such as heart attack, stroke and blindness, making it very costly to treat.”