Muscat: Women constituted 54 .3 per cent of a total of 6,430 new diabetes cases registered during 2019 in the Sultanate.
While making this startling revelation in its annual report, the ministry of health said, “about 31 per cent of the cases registered are in the age group between 45 and 49 years followed by those between 40 and 44 years.”
The total diabetic cases on the register at the national level stood at 105,317 cases in 2019.
“Oman has witnessed an epidemiological transition to non-communicable diseases possible because of a number of factors including changes in lifestyle together with the demographic changes as is evident by aging of the population,” the report said.
According to the report, cardiovascular diseases and cancer are the leading causes of death, while hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, obesity and diabetes mellitus are on the rise.
“Almost 75 per cent hypertensive patients and 52 per cent diabetics do not know that they have these diseases and only 67 per cent and 64 per cent of those who have it do not control it.”
“The Ministry of Health has taken several steps to improve the health care provided to such patients including both preventive and curative measures at all levels of health care,” said the report.
A study of diabetes complications among 2,551 patients in Oman, with median diabetes duration of four years, has shown that 52 per cent of subjects were treated for hypertension, 40 per cent for dyslipidemia, 37 per cent had microalbuminuria, and 5 per cent had overt diabetic nephropathy.
The study published in Oman Medical Journal, pointed out, cardiovascular complications are common in such subjects where 10 per cent, 2.6 per cent, 2.3 per cent, and 2.1 per cent reported history of coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular accident, heart failure, and coronary artery bypass graft, respectively.
“Through such complications, diabetes kills 5 million people annually worldwide and most of them prematurely,” the report said.
Current global estimates indicate that this condition affects 415 million people and is set to escalate to 642 million by the year 2040. A further 193 million people with diabetes remain undiagnosed due to the often mild or asymptomatic nature of this condition especially in Type 2 diabetes mellitus.
On the economic side, the report said, “healthcare expenditures for people with diabetes are on average two times higher than people without diabetes”.
According to the International Diabetes Federation, healthcare spending on diabetes care in the MENA region was the highest compared to other regions, and mounted to 15 per cent of the total health care expenditure.
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