Surge In Obesity Among Children Adds To Britain’s Growing Band Of Diabetics

The burden of diabetes is growing much faster than health planners anticipated because of the epidemic in obesity in Western countries, scientists say today. In one country the increase in Type 2 diabetes in a decade has already overtaken an international prediction for 2030.

The researchers believe that rising levels of obesity and the better treatment of people with Type 2 diabetes account for the discrepancy.

In Britain two million people are diagnosed with diabetes, with Type 2 accounting for at least 85 per cent of cases. An estimated 750,000 more have the condition without knowing it.

Type 2 diabetes, sometimes called non-insulin dependent diabetes, is closely linked to obesity. Adult obesity rates in Britain have quadrupled in 25 years. Type 2 diabetes classically affects people over 40 but children are now being diagnosed.

The study in the medical journal, The Lancet, analysed the prevalence of Type 2 diabetes in Ontario, Canada between 1995 and 2005. It found an increase of 69 per cent over the 10 years compared with the World Health Organisation’s prediction of a 39 per cent increase between 2000 and 2030.

Dr Lorraine Lipscombe, of the Institute for Clinical Evaluation Science, Toronto, said that it also saw a higher rise in the rate of cases in younger people under 50 than in older people. “A 27 per cent increase has taken place after only five years,” she said. “Rising rates of obesity could be the cause of this striking growth [in cases] and effective public health interventions to manage and prevent obesity are sorely needed.”

Obesity in Canadians has increased by an estimated 20 to 30 per cent in 10 years.

Diabetes can lead to many serious health problems, including heart disease, blindness and amputations. It occurs when the body cannot properly utilise sugar to provide energy. This results from either a lack of insulin — the hormone that controls sugar use — or because the effects of insulin are no longer felt.

Matt Hunt, science information manager at Diabetes UK, said: “By 2010, we estimate that the number of people with diabetes in the UK will increase by around 30 per cent to three million. This new study shows that rates of diabetes could rise to an unprecedented level.

“This is particularly worrying because the UK has an ageing population and spiralling rates of obesity that could mean that the Canadian model could be replicated in the UK.”

The Government has predicted that by 2010 about a third of people in Britain, as many as 14 million will be obese. Rates have risen by 38 per cent since 2003. As many as 22 per cent of girls and 19 per cent of boys aged two to 15 are obese.