Age- and sex-specific prevalence of diabetes and impaired glucose regulation in 11 Asian cohorts

Abstract

Objective: To report the age- and sex-specific prevalence of diabetes and impaired glucose regulation (IGR) according to revised World Health Organization criteria for diabetes in Asian populations. Research design and methods-We performed 11 studies of 4 countries, comprising 24,335 subjects (10,851 men and 13,484 women) aged 30-89 years who attended the 2-h oral glucose tolerance test and met the inclusion criteria for data analysis. Results-The prevalence of diabetes increased with age and reached the peak at 70-89 years of age in Chinese and Japanese subjects but peaked at 60-69 years of age followed by a decline at the 70 years of age in Indian subjects. At 30-79 years of age, the 10-year age-specific prevalence of diabetes was higher in Indian than in Chinese and Japanese subjects. Indian subjects also had a higher prevalence of IGR in the younger age-groups (30-49 years) compared with that for Chinese and Japanese subjects. Impaired glucose tolerance was more prevalent than impaired fasting glycemia in all Asian populations studied for all age-groups. Conclusions-Indians had the highest prevalence of diabetes among Asian countries. The age at which the peak prevalence of diabetes was reached was ~10 years younger in Indian compared with Chinese and Japanese subjects. Diabetes and IGR will be underestimated in Asians based on the fasting glucose testing alone.