British lifestyles fuel costly rise in diabetes

By Stefano Ambrogi

LONDON (Reuters) - New cases of diabetes are soaring in Britain, and medical experts say the rise is due to higher obesity rates caused by unhealthy diet and lack of exercise.

The findings suggest that diabetes is increasing faster in Britain than in the United States, where the prevalence of the disease is one of the highest in the world.

The disease can lead to heart disease, strokes and kidney failure and results in hundreds of amputations a week. It costs the state-funded National Health Service billions of pounds a year to treat, and children are increasingly susceptible to it.

Charity Diabetes UK said revised figures show the government is spending 1 million pounds ($1.46 million) an hour, 10 percent of the NHS budget, on tackling the disease.

The number of people newly diagnosed with diabetes jumped 74 percent between 1997 and 2003, and the overall incidence of the disease rose to 4.3 percent of the population in 2005 from 2.8 percent in 1996, according to research published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health on Tuesday.

The bulk of the fresh cases were type 2 diabetes, linked to overweight or obese people, the journal reported, citing research led by experts in Spain and Sweden.

"Our results suggest that, although the incidence of diabetes remains lower in the UK than in the USA or Canada, it appears to be increasing at a faster pace," researchers said.

The Department of Health said the government launched two initiatives last year to catch the illness at an early stage and educate people.

Diabetes UK said there had been a huge rise in cases related to child obesity. "We are seing children as young as seven that are linked to Type 2 diabetes, which is a situation unheard of before and is down to the weight gain," a spokesman said.

The charity urged Britons to take more exercise and shed excess weight.

"It is imperative that we raise awareness of the importance of eating a healthy, balanced diet and doing at least 30 minutes of physical activity a day," said Douglas Smallwood, chief executive of Diabetes UK.

The new research showed that the prevalence of the disease was 29 percent higher among men than among women.

Of more than 42,642 people newly diagnosed with the disease between 1996 and 2005, 1,256 had "insulin-dependent" Type 1 diabetes and 41,386 had Type 2 linked to lifestyle.

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