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Sociodemographic and lifestyle-related risk factors for identifying vulnerable groups for type 2 diabetes: a narrative review with emphasis on data from Europe

  • Feel4Diabetes-study Group
  • Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, School of Health Science and Education Harokopio University, Athens, Greece.
  • Department of Movement and Sports Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
  • Department of Public Health Solutions, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland.
  • Department of Paediatrics, Medical University Varna, Varna, Bulgaria.
  • Department of Family and Occupational Medicine, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary.
  • Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain.
  • Unidad Clínica y de Investigación en Lípidos y Arteriosclerosis, Hospital Universitario Miguel Servet, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Aragón (IIS Aragón) CIBERCV, Zaragoza, Spain.
  • National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 17 Ag. Thoma St, 11527, Athens, Greece.
  • Department for Prevention and Care of Diabetes, Faculty of Medicine Carl Gustav Carus, Technische Universität Dresden, Fetscherstraße 74, 01307, Dresden, Germany.
  • Paul Langerhans Institute Dresden of the Helmholtz Center Munich at University Hospital and Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany.
  • Department of Diabetology, Clinical Center of Endocrinology, Medical University Sofia, Sofia, Bulgaria.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review

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Abstract

BACKGROUND: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) comprises the vast majority of all diabetes cases in adults, with alarmingly increasing prevalence over the past few decades worldwide. A particularly heavy healthcare burden of diabetes is noted in Europe, where 8.8% of the population aged 20-79 years is estimated to have diabetes according to the International Diabetes Federation. Multiple risk factors are implicated in the pathogenesis of T2DM with complex underlying interplay and intricate gene-environment interactions. Thus, intense research has been focused on studying the role of T2DM risk factors and on identifying vulnerable groups for T2DM in the general population which can then be targeted for prevention interventions.

METHODS: For this narrative review, we conducted a comprehensive search of the existing literature on T2DM risk factors, focusing on studies in adult cohorts from European countries which were published in English after January 2000.

RESULTS: Multiple lifestyle-related and sociodemographic factors were identified as related to high T2DM risk, including age, ethnicity, family history, low socioeconomic status, obesity, metabolic syndrome and each of its components, as well as certain unhealthy lifestyle behaviors. As Europe has an increasingly aging population, multiple migrant and ethnic minority groups and significant socioeconomic diversity both within and across different countries, this review focuses not only on modifiable T2DM risk factors, but also on the impact of pertinent demographic and socioeconomic factors.

CONCLUSION: In addition to other T2DM risk factors, low socioeconomic status can significantly increase the risk for prediabetes and T2DM, but is often overlooked. In multinational and multicultural regions such as Europe, a holistic approach, which will take into account both traditional and socioeconomic/socioecological factors, is becoming increasingly crucial in order to implement multidimensional public health programs and integrated community-based interventions for effective T2DM prevention.

Original languageEnglish
Article number134
JournalBMC Endocrine Disorders
Volume20
Issue numberSuppl 1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 12 Mar 2020

Bibliographical note

© The Author(s). 2020 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and
reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to
the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver
(http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

  1. SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
    SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being

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