Diabetes is exploding in developing and middle-income countries

The L.A. Times reports:

It's World Health Day 2016, and world health leaders can now make a pretty safe prediction: Their goal for the year 2025 of holding worldwide diabetes prevalence to the levels that prevailed in 2010 will not be met.

A new global assessment of diabetes finds that the number of adult diabetics in 2014 stood at 422 million, up from 108 million in 1980. By 2025, the number of diabetic adults worldwide is expected to surpass 700 million. By then, 12.8% of men and 10.4% of women are expected to have diabetes, a metabolic disorder that increases two- to fourfold a sufferer's risk of having a heart attack or stroke.

The new research was published in the journal Lancet. Data was compiled and analyzed by an international team of public health researchers under a grant from Britain's Wellcome Trust.

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