Some four percent of the adult population in Qatar has undiagnosed diabetes and many are diagnosed only after being admitted to hospital as a result of medical emergency such as a stroke or heart attack.
Also, some figures estimate that between 20 and 25 percent of the adult population may be pre-diabetic, but it is difficult to know the exact percentage as many of these individuals are unaware of their condition, said Prof Abou Badi Abou Samra, Senior Consultant, Internal Medicine, at the Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC).
Pre-diabetes describes a condition in which blood glucose levels are higher than normal, but not high enough to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Individuals who are pre-diabetic have a high risk of developing type 2 diabetes and are also at increased risk of developing heart disease.
“One of the greatest challenges with addressing pre-diabetes is that there are often no signs or symptoms and it isn’t always apparent which individuals are impacted. The problem is that while the patient does not have symptoms, his heart, eyes, kidneys, brain, limbs are affected by the diseases in a cumulative way,” Prof Abou Samra told The Peninsula.
“The longer the disease is not treated, the worse the complications. We cannot stress enough the importance of early screening, particularly for those at high risk. The main risk factors for type 2 diabetes include family history of diabetes, being overweight, older age, a low level of physical activity and a history of gestational diabetes. If you have more than one of these risk factors, it is important to get tested,” he added.
Screening for diabetes and pre-diabetes not only helps create greater awareness of diabetes risk factors and signs and symptoms, but it also helps health care professionals share important information about the importance of healthy lifestyle choices.
“During Ramadan, we launched a screening programme while people were fasting and we discovered that about 23 percent were pre-diabetic and four percent of them had diabetes and were not aware of it,” said Prof Abou Samra.
He also said that the pre-diabetes condition is completely reversible when the person adopts a healthy lifestyle that reverses risk factors, which could include healthy food habits, daily physical activity, such as 30 minutes of walking daily, stopping smoking and treatment of associated conditions such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
