With the World Health Organisation (WHO) having made diabetes prevention and management as theme for this year’s World Health Day on Thursday, there was specific emphasis on preventing young adults from becoming diabetic.
“We need to put in place a preventive mechanism, by covering not only young adults but also young children,” District Medical Officer R.L. Saritha said amid various programmes held by the Health Department and other organisations to stress prevention of diabetes.
Two wrong opinions
Secretary of the Calicut Diabetes Forum S.K. Sureshkumar said: “There are two wrong opinions. One is that diabetes is the disease of the elderly. The other is that it cannot be prevented. We need to remove this notion among the public, because we see more young adults turning diabetic.”
Dr. Sureshkumar said 60 per cent to 70 per cent of the diabetics in developing countries, including India, were in the 40-59 age group. “A more distressing factor is that 20 per cent to 30 per cent of the diabetics are in the 20-39 age group. This has to be prevented for a whole range of health issues that can crop up in these persons as they age, especially with uncontrolled diabetes,” he said.
Dr. Saritha said children must be the target of any diabetes prevention programme. On the popular view that such a drive that touched upon healthy diet and physical activity should begin in schools, the health official said: “I would say that it should begin at a younger age – the pre-school stage. We see a lot of unhealthy food being provided to pre-school children, which carries the risk of early onset of diabetes,” she said.
The WHO has estimated that from 400 million affected people across the world in 2015, the numbers would rise to 640 million in 2040. As much as 75 per cent of the diabetics were from the low and middle income countries, including India. And, Kerala had a huge number of diabetics, Dr. Sureshkumar said.
