The research focused on the Bellville South community in the northern suburbs of Cape Town, and showed that one in four adults in the Western Cape’s coloured population may be affected by type 2 diabetes.
“This population has a very high prevalence of diabetes. Over the age of 40, nearly one in every four individuals (28,2%) either have diabetes, or are at high risk of developing it,” says Professor Rajiv Erasmus from the faculty of medicine and health sciences (FMHS) at Stellenbosch University and lead researcher of the study that was published in the South African Medical Journal. This research was a collaborative effort between the FMHS, the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Walter Sisulu University, and the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC).
He emphasises that although the coloured population appear to be worst affected, there has been a rising trend in the prevalence of type 2 diabetes across all South African population groups. For instance, it is estimated that diabetes now affects one in every 10 black South Africans, where in the past, one in every 20 individuals from this group had diabetes.
Another alarming finding in the study was that more than half of the respondents with diabetes were unaware they had the disease.
“This is particularly worrying because of the long-term complications of diabetes in which the eyes, heart, skin, blood vessels and kidneys are affected. The presence of diabetes will no doubt exacerbate the already high prevalence of hypertension and chronic kidney disease in our population, hamper economic activity, and stretch the limited health facilities,” Erasmus warns.
For the study, researchers assessed 642 randomly selected participants from the Bellville South community for type 2 diabetes and other risk factors of the metabolic syndrome – a group of risk factors (such as being overweight, having high blood pressure and/or high LDL cholesterol) that raises the risk for heart disease and other health problems. All respondents were 31 years or older.
In response to the findings of this study, researchers have launched various follow-up studies to uncover the reason for this unusually high prevalence of diabetes in this population, and are assessing the application of user-friendly methods of diagnosis that could simplify the screening process for diabetes. The researchers suggest that a campaign called, “Know your diabetic status” should be launched to actively screen subjects for diabetes.
