NDMS

• In 2006, seniors accounted for 13.7% of the total population
• By 2031, seniors will account for ~24% (almost double 2006 levels)
• By the year 2056, the median age of Canadians will be 45–50 years
• Guidelines recommend screening for diabetes every 1 to 3 years starting at age 40. Therefore, over half the population will have at least one risk factor (age >40) and should be regularly screened
• The implications of screening half the population for a single disease are staggering

• Proportion of seniors:
  • National average: 13.5%
  • Saskatchewan: 15.4% (highest)
  • Alberta: 10.7% (lowest)

• 58.3% came from Asia
• 10.6% came from Africa
• 10.8% came from Central/South America and the Caribbean

• In 2008, 51% of adult Canadians reported being overweight and 17% reporting being obese. (1)
• From 2003 to 2008, obesity rates were from 16% to 18% in men, and from 15% to 16% in women. The highest rate of obesity (22%) was among 55 to 64 year olds (24% of men and 21% of women). (1)
• Prevalence of obesity from 1978/79 to 2004 increased from 3% to 8% in boys and girls aged 2–17 years. (2)
• Between 2007 and 2017, it is estimated that people who are overweight (BMI 25–30 kg/m2) will compromise the greatest number of new cases of diabetes (712,000), even though their baseline risk is lower than for people who are obese (BMI of 30–35 kg/m2) or morbidly obese (BMI >35 kg/m2). This is because there are more Canadians who are overweight than obese. (3)

Sources:

1. Statistics Canada. Canadian Community Health Survey, 2008. The Daily. Thursday, June 25, 2009. Available at: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/. Accessed June 15, 2011

2. Lau DCW, Douketis JD, Morrison K, et al; Obesity Canada Clinical Practice Guidelines Expert Panel. 2006 Canadian clinical practice guidelines on the management and prevention of obesity in adults and children [summary]. CMAJ. 2007;176(8 Suppl):S1–13. [For the complete set of guidelines, http://www.cmaj.ca/] Accessed June 15, 2011.

3. Manuel DG, Rosella LCA, Tuna M, Bennett C. How many Canadians will be diagnosed with diabetes between 2007 and 2017? Assessing population risk. ICES Investigative Report. Toronto: Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences; 2010

• More than 12% of the working age population lives in poverty
• People who live in poverty are often unable to meet basic housing, food and security needs, and they have a greater risk of health problems than people who do not live in poverty.
• Health follows a social gradient: populations in a lower position in the social hierarchy experience, as a group, the worst health
• Life expectancy in the lowest-income quintile neighborhoods in Canada is 5 years shorter for men and 1.6 years shorter for women than those in the highest-income neighborhoods

• Diabetes is disproportionately clustered:
  • In the lower socioeconomic status quintiles (1)
  • In neighborhoods with lower average household incomes, high proportions of visible minorities and/or recent immigrants (1)
    
    
• In 2007, the self-reported age-standardized diabetes prevalence rate was highest among adults with a household income of less than $20,000 (8%); this rate was double that of the group with an income of $60,000 and over (4%). (2)

• People in lower income brackets and with fewer years of education also report the following (3) (all of which are risk factors for diabetes):
  • Higher rates of smoking
  • Less physical activity; and
  • Higher rates of overweight
• People with less than secondary education have more than double the risk of developing diabetes risk compared with people with at least some post-secondary education. (4)