Clinical management of type 2 diabetes in south Asia

Publication date: Available online 1 October 2018Source: The Lancet Diabetes & EndocrinologyAuthor(s): Anoop Misra, Naveed Sattar, Nikhil Tandon, Usha Shrivastava, Naval K Vikram, Kamlesh Khunti, Andrew P HillsSummaryCompared with other ethnic groups, south Asian people with type 2 diabetes tend to develop the disease at a younger age and manifest with higher glycaemia, dyslipidaemia, nephropathy, and cardiovascular diseases. Additionally, specific issues that can affect treatment of type 2 diabetes in south Asia include poor awareness of the disease, delay in diagnosis, inadequate treatment, the use of ineffective and often harmful alternative medicines, and frequent non-compliance with lifestyle recommendations and drug treatment. Disease development at younger ages, delayed diagnosis, and inadequate management result in early development of severe complications and premature mortality. In this Series paper, we describe the challenges associated with the increasing burden of type 2 diabetes in south Asia and discuss ways to improve clinical care of people with the disorder in the region (defined to include Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka). Treatment of diabetes in south Asia needs to be individualised on the basis of diverse and heterogeneous lifestyle, phenotype, environmental, social, cultural, and economic factors. Aggressive management of risk factors from diagnosis is necessary to reduce the risk of microvascular and macrovascular complication...

Source: The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology - October 5, 2018 Category: Endocrinology Source Type: research