Every Fifth Adult in Austria Has a Pre-Diabetic Condition

"Data on the prevalence of prediabetes with the risk of developing diabetes mellitus and undiagnosed diabetes are rare in Central Europe, and previously unavailable from Austria," write Caren Sourij (University Clinic Graz) and co-authors in their work, which has now been published in "Obesity Facts." The scientists analyzed data from health examinations of individuals over 18 years old from 2017 to 2023, as well as information from an observational study of people with diagnosed or previously undiagnosed diabetes. They based their analysis on 6.9 million fasting blood glucose tests.

Diabetes: Men more frequently affected

After excluding nearly 36,000 individuals with known type 1 diabetes and around 480,000 individuals with diagnosed type 2 diabetes, information from 6,412,591 people remained. Approximately 3.6 million of them were women.

The scientists stated: "The raw prevalence of prediabetes was 21.084 percent, and that of undiagnosed diabetes was 2.950 percent, with age-standardized prevalences of 19.709 percent (prediabetes) and 2.741 percent (diabetes)." Men showed a higher frequency (age-standardized) both in the precursor to diabetes with 23.635 percent compared to 16.531 percent (women) and in diabetes with 3.585 percent compared to 2.957 percent. In 2017, a proportion of seven percent with known type 2 diabetes in the study was compared to a proportion of 2.8 percent with undiagnosed diabetes, and in 2023, it was 6.7 to also 2.8 percent.

At the beginning of November, the Austrian Diabetes Society (ÖDG) pointed out that, according to estimates, around ten percent of the Austrian population suffers from diabetes mellitus. Only 70 percent of the cases are diagnosed. A study of approximately 3,000 patients admitted to hospitals in Upper Austria revealed that 51.5 percent had either prediabetes or diabetes. However, hospital patients naturally represent a specific health-related population group.

(APA/Red.)

This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.