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Sub-anchor: Multiple factors trigger diabetes

CCTV.com

11-14-2016 13:05 BJT

For more, we are joined by our reporter Hou Na. In your story you mention the outbreak of diabetes in China, tell us, just how serious is this, and why?

Hou Na: I know, one in ten adults in China now suffer from diabetes -- that figure sounds astonishing! Back in the 1980s, it was less than 5 percent. We see from clinics that more children below the age of 14 are getting type-2 diabetes. Besides hereditary factors, the main reason is that they've become overweight since their younger years. A study by Public Health England shows that approximately 90 percent of diabetes cases are type-2, and this is largely preventable or manageable by lifestyle changes. The likelihood of developing type-2 diabetes is increased by being overweight, although family history, ethnicity and age can also increase risk. The study shows the proportion of people who have diabetes increases with age: 9 percent of people aged 45 to 54 have diabetes, but for those over 75 it is 23.8 percent. The condition is also more common in men: 9.6 percent compared with 7.6 percent among women, and people from South Asian and African ethnic groups are nearly twice as likely to have the disease compared with people from white, mixed or other ethnic groups.

Q2. You’ve talked to experts, what do they advise on how to effectively prevent diabetes?

Hou Na: Well, it is too often that people only find out they have the disease after they have developed serious complications. Experts told me that raising public awareness and developing a more effective early diagnosis system are two important factors in combating the disease. What doctors wish is to see a radical shift from treatment of diseases towards prevention and promotion of good health.

Experience has shown that simple changes in lifestyle, including maintaining a normal weight, regular physical exercise and a healthy diet, can be effective in preventing or delaying type-2 diabetes.

Measures to initiate and maintain these changes should focus on the younger generation by providing healthy food in schools, replacing sweets and sugary drinks in school vending machines with healthy alternatives, and making foods low in salt, sugar and fat available and affordable for all.

As for type-1 diabetes, actions to improve the lives of people living with the disease could include further developing e-health technologies that let patients monitor their blood glucose levels and transmit the information electronically to their healthcare specialist.

More broadly, increasing patient access to quality care across the country and supporting research for finding new and more effective treatments would remain key objectives of health policy.

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