Prediabetes management in the Middle East, Africa and Russia: Current status and call for action.
Samir Helmy Assaad Khalil, Sulaf Ibrahim Abdelaziz, Affaf Al Shammary, Ali Al Zahrani, Ashraf Amir, Nabil Elkafrawy, Ahmed Ak Hassoun, Ulrike Hostalek, Adel Jahed, Nadim Jarrah, Sanaa Mrabeti, Imran Paruk, Alexey V Zilov
Author Information
Samir Helmy Assaad Khalil: 1 Unit of Diabetology, Lipidology & Metabolism, Department of Internal Medicine, Alexandria Faculty of Medicine, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt.
Sulaf Ibrahim Abdelaziz: 2 Department of Internal Medicine and Endocrinology, Soba University Hospital, University of Khartoum, Khartoum, Sudan.
Affaf Al Shammary: 3 International Health Department, Ministry of Health, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Ali Al Zahrani: 4 Medicine and Molecular Endocrinology Section, Department of Molecular Oncology, King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Ashraf Amir: 5 Department of Family Medicine, International Medical Center, Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Nabil Elkafrawy: 6 Egyptian National Committee of Diabetes, Department of Internal Medicine and Diabetology, Menoufia University, Al Menoufia, Egypt.
Ahmed Ak Hassoun: 7 Dubai Diabetes Center, Dubai, UAE.
Most data on the burden of diabetes and prediabetes are from countries where local infrastructure can support reliable estimates of the burden of non-communicable diseases. Countries in the Middle East and Africa, together with Russia, have a total population of almost 2 billion, but have been relatively overlooked by authors in this field. We reviewed the prevalence and drivers of prediabetes and diabetes across this large region. A large, and variable, burden of dysglycaemia exists, especially in Middle Eastern and North African countries, associated with high levels of obesity and sedentariness, with a generally lower prevalence in most other parts of Africa. The design and size of studies are highly variable, and more research to quantify the scale of the problem is needed. Local barriers to care relating to issues concerned with gender, consanguinity, lack of understanding of diabetes, lack of understanding of obesity as a health issue, and limited resource at a national level for tracking and intervention for diabetes and other non-communicable diseases. Lifestyle interventions with proven local cost-effectiveness, enhanced access to pharmacologic intervention, and societal interventions to promote better diet and more activity will be an important element in strategies to combat these adverse trends.
