After working overtime to catch up to life in the West, China now faces a whole new problem: the world’s biggest diabetes epidemic.
One in 10 Chinese adults already has the disease and another 16 percent are on the verge of developing it, according to a new study. The finding nearly equals the U.S. rate of 11 percent and surpasses other Western nations, including Germany and Canada.
The survey results, published today in the New England Journal of Medicine, found much higher rates of diabetes than previous studies, largely because of more rigorous testing measures.
With 92 million diabetics, China is now home to the most cases worldwide, overtaking India.
Chronic ailments, such as high blood pressure and heart disease, have been steadily climbing in countries like China, where many people are moving out of farms and into cities where they have more sedentary lifestyles.
Greater wealth has led to sweeping diet changes, boosting obesity rates, a major risk factor for Type 2 diabetes, which accounts for 90 percent to 95 percent of all diabetes cases among adults.
“As people eat more high-calorie and processed foods combined with less exercise, we see an increase of diabetes patients,” said Huang Jun, a cardiovascular professor at the Jiangsu People’s Hospital in Nanjing.
