High rates of diabetes in NZ | Hawkes Bay News | Local News in Hawkes Bay

New Zealand has one of the highest rates of diabetes among developed countries, according to an international study.

The study, which was carried out by an international team of researchers working with the World Health Organisation, found that New Zealand was among the top five nations in the world where blood glucose levels indicated diabetes was the highest.

The findings did not come as a surprise to Diabetes New Zealand president Chris Baty, who believed the Government needed to make diabetes prevention a priority.

This country also had one of the highest levels of obesity, and more needed to be done to encourage physical education and teach nutritional education in schools, Ms Baty said.

Jim Mann, University of Otago professor of nutrition and medicine, said there was no specific public health programme in New Zealand to deal with the obesity problem.

Obesity and diabetes were intrinsically linked -- Type 2 diabetes, the most common type, was linked with obesity and a sedentary lifestyle, he said.

The latest figures on diabetes in New Zealand would be released in the national nutrition survey later this year, Professor Mann said.

Pacific Island nations were the most at risk, with the highest diabetes levels in the world, the international study found.

A third of all women and a quarter of all men in the Marshall Islands have diabetes.

The increase in diabetes was highest in North America and comparably small in Western Europe.

The United States, Greenland, Malta, New Zealand and Spain had the highest diabetes and blood glucose levels, while the Netherlands, Austria and France had the lowest.

Sub-Saharan Africa had the lowest glucose levels internationally, followed by east and southeast Asia, Radio New Zealand reported.

The study also found that rates of diabetes had either risen or stayed the same in most of the world over the past 30 years.

The number of adults with diabetes worldwide has more than doubled since 1980 to 347 million, which was well over the 285 million prediction.