(1998 SURVEY) 20% of adult Filipinos are diabetic
Dona Pazzibugan
Philippine Daily Inquirer
MANILA, Philippines—One out of every five adult Filipinos is diabetic, according to the latest national survey on the prevalence of the disease.
And compared to a decade ago, more Filipino children may now be at risk of contracting diabetes due to the growing cases of childhood obesity, among other factors, according to a panel of doctors who presented the findings Tuesday.
The survey, conducted last year by the Philippine Cardiovascular Outcome Study on Diabetes Mellitus, also found that as many as three out of five adults may already be diabetic or on the verge of becoming one unless they change their lifestyle.
Dr. Rody Sy, former president of the Philippine College of Physicians and current head of the Cardiovascular Institute at the Cardinal Santos Medical Center, said 82 percent of the respondents in a diabetes survey in 1998 were interviewed again last year.
The 1998 survey showed 3.9 percent of the adult population, or persons aged 30 and above, to be diabetic. The figure rose sharply to 20.6 percent in the 2007 study.
“That means one out of every five adults is diabetic. That is quite high,” Sy said in a press conference.
Sy said the prevalence of diabetes could be higher based on the glucose tolerance tests conducted on the respondents. The study found that 26.2 percent of the sample had “impaired fasting glucose” levels and 23 percent had “impaired glucose tolerance” levels.
“The tests mean that if they are not careful, they can become diabetic,” Sy explained. “Given some overlapping, it appears that three out of five of the adult population are diabetic or pre-diabetic. That’s the bottom line.”
A diabetes survey among Filipino children has yet to be conducted. But giving an estimate, Dr. Lorna Abad, president of the Philippine Society of Pediatric Metabolism and Endocrinology, said around 8 percent of the country’s child population may be diabetic.
“That’s high,” Abad said, noting that 10 years ago the estimate was only 2 to 3 percent.
Abad said she receives as many as eight new diabetic patients a year in her clinic at the state-run Philippine General Hospital, and six to eight more new patients a year in her private practice. “That’s a lot,” she said.
Her youngest patient so far had been a month-old baby, Abad recalled.
Dr. Yolanda Olivares, director of the Department of Health’s National Center for Disease Prevention and Control, described the latest findings on adult diabetics as “a cause for alarm” and “a big challenge for all of us.”
But like Abad, she observed that “more and more children are succumbing to diabetes.”
Olivares cited 2003 data showing that 2.6 percent of Filipino children under 5 years old, as well as 5 percent of children aged 6 to 12 years old, to be overweight—or having one of the risk factors for diabetes.
In 1998, Olivares said, only 1 percent of Filipino children were considered obese.
Olivares warned that unless people start changing their diet and lifestyle, deaths from diabetes among Filipinos may increase by 17 percent within 10 years.
She said the public should start demanding “healthier food”—products containing less sugar and salt—from restaurants and fast-food joints. Smokers should quit, she stressed.
Olivares also cited the importance of breastfeeding, saying formula-fed babies are more prone to developing chronic diseases like diabetes in adult life. Also, diabetes among children is often misdiagnosed as flu, which has similar symptoms, or sometimes not detected at all, she noted.
Dr. Tommy Ty Willing, president of Diabetes Philippines, said Type 2 diabetes generally afflicts adults “but more and more of this kind are (being diagnosed in) children.” He cited cases of high school students already found with Type 2 diabetes.
If diabetes goes undetected in early childhood, it can either prove fatal or result in serious brain damage, Willing said.
The United Nations in 2006 declared Nov. 14 as World Diabetes Day, the first time that a non-communicable disease was recognized as a global problem. The Philippine observance this year focuses on diabetic children and adolescents.
Diabetes is a metabolic disease in which the body is unable to produce or properly use insulin, a hormone needed to convert sugar into energy. This leads to an increase in the sugar level in the blood. Complications include blindness, kidney failure, stroke, heart attack, wounds that would not heal, and impotence.
Diabetes has several warning signs—frequent urination, excessive thirst, and unexplained weight loss. Children of diabetics are at risk of diabetes, and so are people suffering from obesity, hypertension, and high cholesterol levels. Lack of exercise, or living a sedentary lifestyle, has also been found to play a role in causing this disease.
