A study conducted by the Asian Diabetes Foundation showed that Singapore has the highest proportion of younger type-2 diabetes patients, a report by Channel News Asia said.
The survey, which spanned two-years and involved 319 patients from Singapore, China, the Philippines, Thailand, Hong Kong, South Korea, India, Vietnam and Taiwan, also revealed that 3 in 10 Singaporeans had diabetes before reaching the age of 40.
The proportion with younger patients in Singapore is the highest among the nine countries involved in the two-year survey by the Asian Diabetes Foundation.
According to the study, Singapore currently has more than 498,000 patients with type-2 diabetes. Type-2 diabetes makes up about 90 percent of cases of diabetes, with the other 10% due primarily to diabetes mellitus type 1 and gestational diabetes.
It is a metabolic disorder that is characterized by hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) in the context of insulin resistance and relative lack of insulin.
This is in contrast to diabetes mellitus type 1, in which there is an absolute lack of insulin due to breakdown of islet cells in the pancreas
Dr. Ben Ng, consultant physician at Mount Elizabeth Novena Specialist Medical Center told Channel NewsAsia diabetes is often neglected because it has no symptoms.
Meanwhile, scientists in Australia have discovered a simple way to detect diabetes death risk with blood tests.
Associate Professor Graham Hillis of the University of Sydney has conducted a study on 3,862 type 2 diabetes patients, according to the Australian Associated Press (AAP).
Findings in the study revealed that two readily available blood tests can help doctors detect high-risk patients who are most likely to die or suffer a heart attack.
Hillis says better risk detection might allow doctors to save lives with intensive treatment or further investigation. – BusinessNewsAsia.com