PREVALENCE OF DIABETES-MELLITUS IN JAPAN COMPILED FROM LITERATURE

This is an excerpt from the report (1992) of the Epidemiology Data Com mittee of the Japan Diabetes Society. Portions regarding the community -based prevalence data on adult diabetes and the data of official sour ces are shown. Data on the prevalence and incidence of diabetes were c ollected from Japanese medical literature from 1959-1991 by various me ans. In early studies, people were first screened by urine glucose tes t, and subjects positive for glucosuria were further evaluated by bloo d glucose test. Recent studies mostly used 75 g GTT without prior urin e screening. Before 1984, the criteria of the JDS (1970) were chiefly used, while after 1985 the WHO criteria are used to define diabetes. P revalence of diabetes in people older than 40 years was 1.3-4.7% in ea rlier studies, but it increased to 4-11% in recent studies despite the fact that the WHO criteria are more stringent in defining diabetes th an the JDS criteria of 1970. The prevalence of diabetes was higher in men than in women in most reports. Some publications from the Ministry of Health and Welfare included the data on diabetes. They were based on the information of known diabetic patients seen by doctors, and gav e much lower estimates of prevalence than community-based surveys. The estimated prevalence of diabetes was 1.7% from the 1987 Patient Surve y and 1.1% by the Comprehensive Survey of Living Conditions. There was a sharp 30-fold increase during these 30 years. Efforts are now being made to collect more accurate data on the prevalence of diabetes in J apan by the Epidemiology Study Group sponsored by the Ministry of Heal th and Welfare.