Type 2-diabetes: Forebyggelse af en folkesygdom og dens konsekvenser

The number of Danes suffering from type 2 diabetes has increased by 20 to 60% over the last 20 years, and among 60-year-old Danes every fourth female and every fifth male suffer from diabetes or impaired glucose regulation. This marked increase in the prevalence of type 2 diabetes in Denmark is a serious challenge to the Danish health care system with respect to primary as well as secondary prevention. Primary prevention should have the entire population as its target, with the aim being to reduce the total burden of risk factors, overweight and physical inactivity in particular. Individuals with impaired glucose regulation representa special high-risk population that should be offered individual counselling. For patients with established diabetes, evidence-based guidelines for secondary prevention of late diabetic complications have been produced and reviewed in a health technology assessment report issued in 2003. For paUents diagnosed as part of a screening/early detection programme, the situation is less clear, and here there is a need for trials that will clarify the degree of need for very intensive, polypharmacologic treatment.