The Public Health Impact of Type 2 Non-Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus in Asian Indians, Chinese and Japanese

Nadkarni, Neetee A. The Public Health Impact of Type 2 Non-Insulin Diabetes Mellitus in Asian Indians, Chinese and Japanese. Master in Public Health (Community Health), August 2001, 22 pp, 4 tables, bibliography. The prevalence of type 2 non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) is increasing in Asians, especially among Asian, Indian, Chinese and Japanese populations. This increase will have a severe impact on the health and well being of these populations. In 1997, a health survey from the World Health Organization (WHO) found numbers of adults with NIDDM in Asian Indians, Chinese and Japanese populations to be first, second and fifth, respectively. According to the National Commisision on Diabetes, “it is not known how the course, the complications and mortality from diabetes among subgroups of the United States population compare with the same factors for persons with diabetes of the same ethnic origin in the homelands”. This review article focuses on the number and prevalence of NIDDM and risk factors contributing to the disease among these Asian sub-populations. This goal of this paper is to provide information to health and medical researchers, practitioners and community planners for use in public health interventions in the United States, India, China and Japan. The results of this paper direct attention to the migrant Asian Indian, Chinese and Japanese populations because the prevalence of NIDDM is increasingly rapid in these groups.