Diabetes can drastically impact your wellbeing, but wellness experts have found that the situation is more hopeful than it once was. According to a new study, published in the journal Diabetologia covering millions of Canadian and UK patients, the increased mortality risk for people with diabetes has fallen sharply since the mid 1990s. Diabetes UK notes that thousands of patients are still dying prematurely every year, but the researchers assert that this finding proves that we now have better treatments and earlier diagnoses.
In 1996, people with diabetes were twice as likely to die as those without it, but they were only 1.5 times more likely to die than others in 2009. There are often fatal complications to the disease, such as heart disease, stroke and kidney failure, which not only harms patient wellness but poses a huge burden on the NHS. The new study, however, noted that while the number of people diagnosed with diabetes in the UK has risen from fewer than one and a half million to three million, the NHS has been meeting the challenges of diagnosis and treatment better than ever before.
The study authors surmise that the drop in mortality could be due to better and more aggressive treatment, with particular regard to the control of blood sugar and blood pressure levels. They also speculate, on the other hand, that the results may be a reflection of improved screening, which means that more patients have not had diabetes for so long these days. While Dr Alasdair Rankin, director of research for Diabetes UK, believed that the research was ‘really good news’, he warned there was still a long way to go, noting, ‘Every year many thousands of people with diabetes in the UK are still dying before their time. This is unacceptable and urgent action is needed to further improve the situation.’
Dr Jonathan Valabhji, NHS England’s national clinical director for obesity and diabetes, agreed there was still more work to do. He commented, ‘There are wide regional variations across the country in helping patients manage their condition and this is now a key focus for us. By supporting patients to better manage their diabetes, we can work towards reducing the number of patients who suffer complications including amputations or loss of sight.’
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