|
Diabetes in Ethnic Groups
Diabetes is a disease in which the body does not produce
or properly use insulin, a hormone that is needed to convert
sugar, starches and other food into energy needed for daily
life.
The cause of diabetes is a mystery, although both genetics
and environmental factors such as obesity and lack of exercise
appear to play roles.
The role of genetics has been strongly suspected as apart
from parental transfer, its also noticed that certain ethinic
groups have a higher tendency to develop diabetes than others. This
was found to be true even when all the other factors like
lifestyle, age etc were constant.
Diabetes is not contagious. People cannot "catch"
it from each other. However, certain factors can increase
the risk of developing diabetes.
Type 1 diabetes occurs equally among males and females, but
is more common in whites than in nonwhites. Data from the
World Health Organization's Multinational Project for Childhood
Diabetes indicate that type 1 diabetes is rare in most African,
American Indian, and Asian Indian populations. However, some
northern European countries, including Finland and Sweden,
have high rates of type 1 diabetes. The reasons for these
differences are not known.
Type 2 diabetes is more common in older people, especially in people
who are overweight, and occurs more often in Africans, American Indians,
Asian Indians and Hispanic Americans. On average, non-Hispanic
African Americans are 1.7 times more likely to
have diabetes than non-Hispanic whites of the same age. Hispanic
Americans are nearly twice as likely to have diabetes as
non-Hispanic whites. American Indians have the highest rates
of type 2 diabetes in the world.
The prevalence of diabetes in India is likely to increase
for several reasons. First, a large segment of the population
is aging. The food habits of the Indian population are changing
leading to a higher intake of junk or empty calories. Finally,
Indians are increasingly overweight and sedentary.
|
|
|
|
|
|
