7.3% of Vietnam's population has diabetes, experts recommend prevention methods you need to know

The above information was shared by Prof. Dr. Tran Huu Dang, President of the Vietnam Endocrine - Diabetes Association at the "11th Scientific Conference on Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolic Disorders in Vietnam, 2022" jointly organized by the Vietnam Endocrine - Diabetes Association and the Hanoi Endocrine - Diabetes Association from October 22-23.

Specifically, according to Professor Tran Huu Dang, statistics about 20 years ago showed that the rate of diabetes in Hanoi was 1.4%, and in Ho Chi Minh City it was 2.5%. According to the results of a 2012 survey, the rate of diabetes nationwide was 5.7%, of which about 60% of patients had not been diagnosed. Recently, research showed that the rate of diabetes in Vietnam was 7.3%. These figures clearly show that the frequency of diabetes is increasing at a very rapid rate.

What is alarming is that diabetes is quietly coming to Vietnamese people, some people have the disease without even knowing it. This is the reason why about 50% of people with the disease are not diagnosed, and of those diagnosed, only less than 30% of people are treated for diabetes.

In Vietnam, along with economic development, Vietnam's disease model is shifting. While infectious diseases and malnutrition are gradually being controlled, instead there is a sharp increase in non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, diabetes, etc. According to estimates, non-communicable diseases account for 77% of current causes of death.

Diabetes is on the rise due to a sedentary lifestyle and unhealthy diet, which increases obesity and metabolic disorders. In particular, the disease is becoming younger, with many cases recorded in children aged 9-13 and young people aged 20-30.

According to doctors, if diabetes is not treated properly and blood sugar is not well controlled, it will lead to acute and chronic complications, affecting quality of life and increasing mortality rate.

At the conference, endocrinologists and diabetes experts emphasized that lifestyle changes are the basic measure in diabetes treatment, including: self-care education, medical nutrition treatment, physical activity, smoking cessation and psychological treatment. Nutritional treatment plays a particularly important role and needs to be carried out throughout the diabetes treatment process.

According to the International Diabetes Federation, an estimated 463 million adults aged 20-79 are living with diabetes worldwide. By 2045, this number is expected to reach 629 million, equivalent to 1 in 10 people with diabetes.