The prevalence of diabetes worldwide has risen by 45% since 1990 as the prevalence of obesity rises, according to a study of disability, chronic diseases, and injuries in 188 countries. Most of this rise is in type 2 diabetes. However, deaths due to malaria, tuberculosis, and other communicable diseases have declined.
Diabetes has been increasingly more common in wealthy countries over the last several decades, but now countries such as China, India, and Mexico are catching up. This change is due to improvements in the economies of these countries. Diabetes is now the seventh most common cause of disability, up from tenth most common in 2013.
Increases were also seen in the incidence of cancer, which also can be attributed to economic improvement and to longer lifespans. The number of people who are living with a disability is rising because of the growing world population, but the actual percentage has dropped from 114 per 1,000 people in 1990 to 110 per 1,000 in 2013.
These results are from a study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation that was published in The Lancet. It drew on data from 188 countries.
The top five causes of disability were lower back pain, major depression, iron deficiency anemia, neck pain, and hearing loss from aging. One illustration that infectious diseases have fallen in the world is that the incidence of diarrheal diseases fell to 25th place from 15th.
The rate of diabetes in the United States rose by 71% between 1990 and 2013. There are 6,630 cases of diabetes per 100,000 people. This is about the same incidence as seen in China, which has a rise in prevalence of diabetes of 56% in the same time period. Saudi Arabia, which saw a 60% rise, now has 17,816 case of diabetes per 100,000 people.
