Diabetes in the Literature

¶ … Diabetes -- Literature Review

It is estimated that nearly five and a half million people, or over a third of the population, have prediabetes in some populations such as the City of New York; diabetes and diabetes-associated cardiovascular diseases have become the leading cause of death in the region accounting for roughly two-thirds of the deaths and the rates of diabetes has lead this trend to be referred to as the diabetes epidemic (Frieden, 2006). The same trends can be found in a greater or lesser extend in most Western nations in the world. Furthermore, there has been a strong correlation between childhood obesity and childhood diseases, such as diabetes, that has now been identified (Dietz & Bellizzi, 1999).

The link between childhood obesity and adult diseases has been the subject of much attention in recent years. Much of the research has considered the programming of adult metabolic processes and disease that have a mechanistic link to the environment in which person develops early in life; it is believed that there is a biological transfer of information that can begin in the postnatal environment (Fernandez-Twinn & Ozanne, 2010). The implications of this are stark for a meaningful intervention to prevent diseases such as type II diabetes. Such research would suggest that prevented measures should really start in pregnancy and some interventions in childhood may be ineffective because they actual begin too late in the process.

Obesity in children can also lead to an increased likelihood of developing comorbidity with other diseases such as an increased risk of developing the metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease, and its associated retinal and renal complications, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, obstructive sleep apnea, polycystic ovarian syndrome, infertility, asthma, orthopedic complications, psychiatric disease, and increased rates of cancer, among others (Kelsey, Zaepfel, Bjornstad, & Nadeau, 2014). Furthermore, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are now identified to be closely correlated: diabetes mellitus (DM) has been closely associated with coronary heart disease, and conversely, many patients with established coronary heart disease suffer from diabetes or its pre-states (Lars & Al., 2007).

Early detection of diabetes II can help mitigate many of the consequences of the disease and improve health outcomes. The evidence-based clinical diagnostic tool that has been researched and adopted in many countries is the HbA1c which is used to identify and diagnose as well as monitor type 2 diabetes. It is often the case that patients often do not have any significant physical change and yet the diabetes continues to develop from low risk to high risk cases with risks of complications. Rather than being a test of glycaemia at a single point in time the advantage of HbA1c is that it indicates the presence of chronic glycaemia. Therefore this characteristic of HbA1c, is most appropriate to diagnose a disease that that is known to have chronic hyperglycaemia and a gradual progression to complications (John, Hillson, & Alberti, 2011).