A million adults in England likely have Type 2 diabetes but don’t yet know it, official statistics show.
That’s about 30%, or just under a third, of people with the condition.
Younger people with the disease, those in better general health and women with a lower weight-to-height ratio were most likely to be undiagnosed, according to figures from the country’s Office of National Statistics.
Although the data were released Monday, they were gathered between 2013 and 2019 and may have changed in the intervening years.
Over this period, around 7% of adults in England were estimated to have diabetes in total.
What is diabetes?
People with diabetes either don’t produce enough of a hormone called insulin as they should, or can’t use it effectively. Insulin helps move sugar from the blood to other cells in the body. So without it, their blood sugar will rise.
Over time, diabetes can lead to serious complications like eye disease, kidney disease, heart disease and more.
Around 90% of people with diabetes have Type 2 diabetes. This means their bodies can’t use insulin well.
The next most common form of diabetes is Type 1 diabetes: an autoimmune condition where the body destroys its insulin-producing cells. People with Type 1 lower their blood sugar by injecting insulin or using an insulin pump.
No-one knows exactly what causes either of these forms of the disease. But several factors can increase your chance of developing Type 2 diabetes.
Risk factors include family history, age, being overweight and already having prediabetes — elevated blood sugar that doesn’t meet the threshold for diabetes.
Members of some ethnic groups are also have a higher risk of the disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In the U.K., Type 2 diabetes is typically treated with diet changes, exercise, medication and possibly insulin injections.
The country’s public health system is also rolling out an intensive diet programme that aims to help newly diagnosed patients go into remission.
The figures also showed some 5.1 million adults were likely living with prediabetes, with the highest prevalence found from Black and Asian backgrounds.
These groups also had higher rates of undiagnosed diabetes than white people, people with mixed heritage and other ethnic groups. But they had similar rates of the disease itself.
Policy manager Nikki Joule from charity Diabetes U.K. said in a statement that the new figures showed “a shockingly high number of people” were living with undiagnosed Type 2 diabetes, “while millions more are at high risk of developing it.”
She added: “We’re particularly concerned about the prevalence of prediabetes and undiagnosed Type 2 diabetes in people from Black and Asian backgrounds, and the worrying proportion of younger people who are undiagnosed, as we know Type 2 diabetes is more aggressive in younger people.”
It’s really important for Type 2 diabetes “to be detected and diagnosed as early as possible,” she said. With the right treatment and support from the start, patients can reduce the chance of developing “devastating complications.”
