When multiple risk factors are tacked the risk of diabetes plummets by 75 per cent. That’s the conclusions of a study by a Chinese University Medical College.
Healthy behaviours — such as physical activity, eating a balanced diet, and reducing alcohol intake — are well-established as key to type 2 diabetes prevention, but a new meta-analysis shows just how dramatic the combined effect of adopting all of these behaviours can be, reducing the risk of developing the disease by as much as 75% and substantially reducing poor outcomes among those who have diabetes.
Published in the September issue of Diabetologia, Yanbo Zhang of the Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University, is quoted as saying: “Our study is the first systematic review and meta-analysis to summarize the relationship between combined lifestyle factors and incident type 2 diabetes as well as the risk of mortality and incident cardiovascular disease among diabetic individuals.”
Given that the proportion of individuals with the healthiest lifestyle was found to be low in most populations, the key according to the researchers in this latest study is “promotion of an overall healthy lifestyle, instead of tackling one particular lifestyle factor,” noting that this approach “should be a public health priority for all countries.”
Advocacy Action – Do you have a National Diabetes Plan with cross-departmental polices to assist prevention? Are you advocating for such a national plan? Is the need to integrate policies across departments a vital part of a successful prevention strategy?