A health worker performs diabetes screening for a resident in Hue City. (Photo: VNA) Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Lien Huong said that a surveyin 2021 revealed that among those with diabetes, only 35% have been diagnosedand 23% are being treated at medical facilities.
Huong said it is forecast that the number of diabetes cases in Vietnamas well as the whole world will continue to increase rapidly in the comingyears.
Diabetes is one of the common causes of disability and prematuredeath in most countries and is a leading cause of blindness, cardiovasculardisease, kidney failure and ulcerative limb amputation.
The deputy minister also said that the survey results showed thatmore than 55% of patients with diabetes now have complications, including 34%being cardiovascular problems; 39.5% have sight complications and neurologicalcomplications; and 24% kidney complications.
Pham Thuy Linh, deputy head of the Department of ClinicalNutrition and Dietetics at the National Hospital of Endocrinology, saidVietnamese people's diets are now full of fast food, carbonated drinks, andsugar. A 330ml can of soft drink contains 36 to 78 grams of sugar, much morethan the recommended rate for a person per day. This promotes insulinresistance, which increases the risk of diabetes, Linh said.
In addition to sugar, consuming too much unhealthy food can causedyslipidemia, which also increases the risk of type 2 diabetes. For example,dyslipidemia causes acute pancreatitis, and pancreatitis destroys beta cells ofthe pancreas producing diabetes.
Tran Huu Dang, Chairman of the Vietnam Association of Diabetes andEndocrinology, said the treatment and control of diabetes still face manydifficulties with a high rate of undiagnosed patients in the community. Diabetesis thus one of the burdens for society, he said.
According to Phan Huong Duong, Deputy Director of the NationalHospital of Endocrinology, a nationwide survey reported that the rate ofdiabetes among people from 30 to 69 years old in 2002 was only 2.7%; thenit increased to 5.4% in 2012. In 2020, the rate was 7.3%.
He said just like the comment of the International DiabetesFederation, diabetes has become a kind of “pandemic” in developing countriesdue to urbanisation, people eating too much high-carb food and limited exercise.
Duong said now he had patients who are just 12 or 13 years old,which he had never experienced before. He added that the World HealthOrganisation is focusing on preventing type 2 diabetes from adolescents, bystopping obesity.
According to a survey by the National Hospital of Endocrinologywith a group of 11-14 years old in 2018, the overweight rate was 27.8%, whichis too high.
He said: "If we do nothing about that today, the futuregeneration will have to face diabetes type 2."
To prevent diabetes, he recommends focusing on changing lifestyleto proper nutrition and increasing exercise. Bad habits, such as eating dinnerlate, eating a lot of junk food and letting children to play games andwatch TV in a long time, also need to be changed.
World Diabetes Day is observed on November 14 every year to bringthe attention of the people to health threats posed by diabetes and how toavoid that./.
VNA
