18% of adults have pre-diabetes: study

Nearly a fifth of New Zealand adults face a high risk of living with diabetes, and an ''alarmingly high'' level of a pre-diabetes condition should be of major concern to policymakers, researchers say.

Researchers from the University of Otago's Edgar National Centre for Diabetes and Obesity Research have raised these issues in a study published in the New Zealand Medical Journal today.

The study was based on an analysis of blood test results of the adult population that was undertaken by Dr Kirsten Coppell, Prof Jim Mann and colleagues from the centre.

Implementation of ''effective evidence-based diabetes prevention strategies'' was urgently needed to reduce the ''increasing costs of the diabetes epidemic,'' Dr Coppell said. The study results, particularly the number of people with pre-diabetes, on top of an already high national diabetes rate, should be of major concern to policymakers and health funders.

''It's a big problem - we've all got to start working at it,'' she said in an interview yesterday. The blood samples came from the 2008-09 New Zealand Adult Nutrition Survey, work that Otago University researchers conducted on behalf of the Ministry of Health, with key survey findings released in 2011.

A total of 3348 (71%) of survey participants gave blood for the survey.

And this showed that, as at 2008-09, the diagnosed diabetes rate was 7% among adults, aged 15 and over.

This rate was ''already high'' and comparison with earlier data showed diabetes prevalence was rising.

But those with pre-diabetes - a glucose metabolism disorder that typically leads to diabetes- amounted to 18.6% of the overall adult population.

That meant the prevalence of actual diabetes (type 2) was set to rise significantly in subsequent years.

Diabetes is a common chronic disease with significant morbidity, mortality and cost.

''We found an alarmingly high prevalence of a glucose metabolism disorder - diabetes or pre-diabetes - in working age groups.''

''Almost 20% of those aged 35-44 years, more than 25% of those aged 45-54 years and almost 45% of those aged 55-64 years had a glucose metabolism disorder, or pre-diabetes.''

The implications of increased diabetes-related morbidity, mortality and health care costs were ''considerable''.

But international studies also offered a message of hope, that increased regular physical activity and improved diet, with less saturated fat and sugar, could prevent people with pre-diabetes from developing diabetes itself.

She and her colleagues also hope to attract funding for further research into the effectiveness of dietary intervention at general practitioner level for those with pre-diabetes.

Diabetes prevalence was higher among the obese group (14.2%), compared with the normal weight group (2.4%), and one-quarter of those who were obese had pre-diabetes.

-john.gibb@odt.co.nz