Preventing diabetes: A call for concerted national action

摘要

Many words have been written about the epidemic of type 2 diabetes (T2D) in developed and developing countries, and there are few clinicians at the coal face who do not feel overwhelmed by the tsunami of diabetes cases being experienced, particularly in multi-ethnic urban areas. It is clear that preventing diabetes is certainly more cost effective than treating the condition and its attendant complications. We now have strong randomised trial evidence that intervention, either by pharmacological or lifestyle methods, in patients with pre-diabetes can reduce risk of incident diabetes. The seeds of diabetes are, however, sown in childhood and nurtured by environmental factors which require concerted action to break. It is clear, therefore, that prevention of diabetes should start earlier than the phase of pre-diabetes.