60% without therapy

More than 800 million diabetics worldwide

The new study was carried out by an international group of scientists in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO).

(Bild: stock.adobe.com/Kwangmoozaa - stock.adobe.com)

Four times more people suffer from diabetes than in 1990 - a total of 800 million people worldwide are affected. Almost 60 percent of them are still not receiving any treatment. Fortunately, things are a little different in Austria.

"From 1990 to 2022, the incidence of diabetes doubled in both men (from 6.8 to 14.3 percent) and women (from 6.9 to 13.9 percent). With the additional influence of the growth and ageing of the world's population, there will be 828 million adults with diabetes in 2022," experts say.

This means an increase of 630 million people affected since 1990, when an estimated 198 million people had the disease.

Hardly any changes in wealthy countries
The very different development according to world regions, countries and social situation is striking: while the incidence of diabetes in women in Pakistan, for example, has increased from nine to 30.9 percent, hardly any change was observed in wealthy countries around the world - such as France, Spain and Denmark.

For the study, scientists used data from more than 140 million people over the age of 18 and from more than 1000 studies in various countries.

Forschungsergebnisse in aller Kürze

• The countries with the lowest diabetes rates for both sexes in 2022 were located in Western Europe and East Africa, but also included Canada and Japan. They were between two and four percent in Denmark, Spain and Switzerland for women and between three and five percent for men in countries such as Denmark, France, Uganda, Kenya, Malawi and Rwanda.
• 25 percent and even higher percentages of diabetics are found in Pacific island states, the Caribbean, the Middle East and countries such as Pakistan and Malaysia. The reason for this is often obesity and poor nutrition.
• The highest rates of diabetes in the highly developed industrialized nations are in the United States: 11.4 percent of women and 13.6 percent of men suffer from it.
• Three out of five adults with diabetes over the age of 30 (59 percent) do not receive any medical care. The number of people affected without treatment has increased by a factor of 3.5 since 1990, reaching 445 million patients in 2022 (1990: 129 million).

Situation in Austria
The figures for Austria in the study should obviously be viewed somewhat critically. According to the Austrian Diabetes Society (ÖDG), there are currently around 800,000 people living with diabetes in the Alpine republic. Around 60 percent of those affected over the age of 30 were undergoing treatment.