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A comment on Diabetes complications soar in US, but not Canada, as teens become young adults. Parent comment

Re:Diabetes complications soar in US, but not Canada, as tee... by nickles on Thursday May 09, 2019 @01:37PM (#19870333)
Although I agree with you that the article misunderstands the problem, I'm not sure it's the cost of insulin that's the issue. Of all diabetics in the United States, ~3% have type 1 diabetes. It looks like 90-95% have type 2 [0], which is highly correlated with obesity.

While obesity rates in Canada appear to have stagnated [1], they are steadily increasing in the United States [2]. Additionally, the United States has roughly double the rate of obesity as Canada. Given the relative increase in obesity in the USA versus Canada, it's quite possible the increase in diabetic complications can be attributed to this.

[0] http://diabetes.org/diabetes-basics/statistics/

[1] https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/82-625-x/2015001/article...

[2] https://www.stateofobesity.org/obesity-rates-trends-overview...

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Re:Diabetes complications soar in US, but not Canada, as tee... by ng12 on Thursday May 09, 2019 @02:13PM (#19870671)
Obesity and Type 2 diabetes have very little to do with this issue. Not all Type 2 diabetics take insulin and not all Type 2 diabetics who take insulin are at risk of DKA. Furthermore, the vast majority of Type 2 diabetics are adults. The article is very clearly referring to Type 1 diabetics.
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Re:Diabetes complications soar in US, but not Canada, as tee... by qntty on Thursday May 09, 2019 @01:40PM (#19870368)
For young people, the numbers are very different. See my other comment.
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Re:Diabetes complications soar in US, but not Canada, as tee... by nickles on Thursday May 09, 2019 @01:42PM (#19870385)
The referenced article studied individuals aged 12 to 30. Additionally, while both type 1 and type 2 diabetes rates among youths are rising, type 2 diabetes is becoming more common in that group.

[0] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11606-019-05006-6

[1] https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/rates-new-diag...

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