Around 20 million Iranians have diabetes or prediabetes, health official says

Detailed summary

Around 20 million Iranians have diabetes or prediabetes, while rising medicine prices and limited access to treatment are complicating efforts to control the disease, a senior…

Around 20 million Iranians have diabetes or prediabetes, while rising medicine prices and limited access to treatment are complicating efforts to control the disease, a senior Health Ministry official told ISNA.

Alireza Mahdavi, deputy head of the ministry’s noncommunicable diseases center, said a national survey estimated that seven to eight million people over 25 had diabetes and more than 13 million had prediabetes, which puts them at increased risk of developing the disease.

Mahdavi also warned that type 2 diabetes was increasingly affecting children and teenagers, citing childhood obesity, physical inactivity and increased screen time.

He said prevalence was higher in Yazd and the Caspian provinces of Gilan and Mazandaran, while the gap between urban and rural areas was narrowing.

Opening of the article, excerpted from Iran International. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.