ABU DHABI // Type 2 diabetes, which is normally associated with obese adults, is being diagnosed in children as young as 6 in what doctors are calling a national health emergency.
Ahead of Friday’s World Diabetes Day, experts say that a generation growing up with junk food and sedentary lifestyles is now vulnerable to the disease at a much, much earlier age.
“We have children here in Abu Dhabi that are 7 years old, 6 years old, with Type 2 diabetes,” said Dr Baha’a Sha’ath, a consultant nephrologist at Healthpoint.
Dr Sha’ath estimates that up to 150 new cases of diabetes are reported each day in the UAE – and the patients are getting younger.
Diabetes or disorders caused by it such as cardiovascular disease or infection from amputations led to about 1,400 deaths in the country last year, he said.
“We can consider it an emergency,” he said. “It is a health emergency issue.”
Dr Zohreh Safai, a family medicine specialist at Dubai Bone and Joint Centre, said priority needed to be given to curbing childhood obesity.
“It’s not just in the UAE, but all over the world,” Dr Safai said. “Our kids are no longer outside playing ball. They are all indoors on the computer.
“Diabetes is definitely an epidemic that has come upon us. We need to promote physical activity, a healthier lifestyle and maintaining health weight.”
The International Diabetes Federation says about 19 per cent of the UAE population has diabetes.
But it is those with undiagnosed diabetes, or with pre-diabetic glucose intolerance, that present the biggest problem, said Dr Sha’ath, 43.
“Many patients come very late to visit the doctor,” he said. “Even if they notice symptoms they do not come. This is why we say diabetes is a silent killer.”
Doctors also warn of a lack of specialists for patients with “diabetic foot”, which can lead to amputation if not treated early.
Overall, the earlier diabetes is detected, the better the outcome, he said.
“This puts emphasis on the early detection and the screening programme,” Dr Sha’ath said. “There have been many efforts to screen people to reduce the number of those with hidden diabetes but still we have a large number.
“Many people, when they hear ‘diabetes‘ and ‘complication’, they will reject to go to the doctors because they are afraid to have it.
“We should raise awareness for these patients that the earlier you visit your doctor the better it will be and then you can manage diabetes, because if you come late to the doctor you might get complications such as renal disease or cardiovascular disease.”
The international federation estimates more than 70 per cent of Type 2 diabetes cases can be prevented or delayed by adopting healthier lifestyles.
“We definitely need to focus more on preventing diabetes,” said Dr Ravi Arora, a specialist in internal medicine at NMC Specialty Hospital, Abu Dhabi. “Diabetes remains a potentially preventable disease to some extent.
“Of course, we cannot modify our genetic or ethnic risk, but the environmental risk and lifestyle risks can be modified to a great extent to reduce the overall prevalence of diabetes.”
This means encouraging younger people to take more physical activity and avoid excessive calorie intake, Dr Arora said.
“The current pre-diabetes numbers could usher in a second wave of new diabetic patients in the next few years if efforts to educate and improve people’s lifestyles are not sustained,” he said.
jbell@thenational.ae