Akanuma Y
Institute for Diabetes Care & Research, Asahi Life Foundation, Tokyo, Japan.
Diabet Med. 1996 Sep;13(9 Suppl 6):S11-2.
Before the 1980s, only limited community-based data were available on the prevalence of diabetes in Japan. The prevalence of diabetes in subjects older than 40 years was 2-5%. In many surveys carried out in the 1990s, all subjects were examined using the 75 g glucose tolerance test and diabetes was diagnosed according to the WHO criteria. Diabetes was found in about 10% of the population older than 40 years. A higher prevalence in Japanese immigrants in the United States suggests that change of environmental factors, such as increased intake of animal fat, might further increase the prevalence of diabetes in Japan in the future. The mean BMI of NIDDM patients at their initial visit to our hospital is 22.9 + 3.4 kg m-2, compared to patients in many other developed countries and diabetic Japanese Americans. Regarding causes of death in Japanese diabetic patients, the most frequent causes were vascular diseases including renal failure 11.2%, ischaemic heart diseases 14.6%, and cerebrovascular diseases 13.5%, thus atherosclerotic diseases were less frequent compared to the data in the United States. Each year, approximately 6000 diabetic patients start haemodialysis, and diabetic retinopathy is the main cause of acquired blindness in Japan.
20世纪80年代以前，日本仅有有限的基于社区的糖尿病患病率数据。40岁以上人群的糖尿病患病率为2%-5%。在20世纪90年代进行的许多调查中，所有受试者均采用75克葡萄糖耐量试验进行检查，并根据世界卫生组织标准诊断糖尿病。在40岁以上的人群中，约10%的人患有糖尿病。在美国的日本移民中较高的患病率表明，环境因素的改变，如动物脂肪摄入量增加，可能会在未来进一步提高日本糖尿病的患病率。与许多其他发达国家的患者以及日裔美国糖尿病患者相比，我院初诊的2型糖尿病患者的平均体重指数为22.9 + 3.4 kg/m²。关于日本糖尿病患者的死因，最常见的死因是血管疾病，包括肾衰竭（11.2%）、缺血性心脏病（14.6%）和脑血管疾病（13.5%），因此与美国的数据相比，动脉粥样硬化疾病的发生率较低。每年约有6000名糖尿病患者开始进行血液透析，糖尿病视网膜病变是日本后天失明的主要原因。
