2010, March 25

New testing suggests that China has a major public health problem of widespread diabetes. 92 million Chinese adults have diabetes and almost 150 million show early symptoms of the disease. This rapid spread of diabetes is related to changes in lifestyles, caused by urbanization and economic development. People increasingly eat processed, fatty and overly salted food and have little physical exercise. The study, which included a nationally representative sample of 46,239 adults, was conducted from June 2007 through May 2008. Age-standardized prevalence rates of diabetes were found to be 10.6% among men and 8.8% among women. 148.2 million adults were diagnosed with pre-diabetes. Contact: Dr. Yang at the Department of Endocrinology, China-Japan Friendship Hospital, Beijing 100029, China, or at ywy_1010@yahoo.com.cn

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