HQ Team
November 15, 2023: Type 2 diabetic patients, especially African Americans and people with low income, are at a 47% increased risk of developing colorectal cancer (CRC), researchers said.
Patients who did not undergo colonoscopy screening and those with a smoking history have a greater risk and preventive screening could dramatically improve survival outcomes, a cohort study on 54,597 adults found.
The study, funded by the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health, used data from the prospective Southern Community Cohort Study in the US, which recruited participants from 2002 to 2009 and completed three follow-up surveys by 2018.
Data were analysed from January to September 2023.
“In this study where the majority of participants were African American with low socioeconomic status, diabetes was associated with elevated CRC risk, suggesting that diabetes prevention and control may reduce CRC disparities,” the authors wrote in the study published in JAMA Network. Open.
422 million diabetics
“The association was attenuated for those who completed colonoscopies, highlighting how adverse effects of diabetes-related metabolic dysregulation may be disrupted by preventative screening.”
Type 2 diabetes is a condition of progressive insulin dysregulation, typically occurring alongside metabolic dysfunctions including hyperglycemia and hyperinsulinemia.
According to the WHO, diabetes is a chronic, metabolic disease characterised by elevated levels of blood glucose (or blood sugar), which leads over time to serious damage to the heart, blood vessels, eyes, kidneys and nerves. The most common is type 2 diabetes, usually in adults, which occurs when the body becomes resistant to insulin or doesn’t make enough insulin.
About 422 million people worldwide have diabetes, the majority living in low-and middle-income countries, and 1.5 million deaths are directly attributed to diabetes each year. Both the number of cases and the prevalence of diabetes have been steadily increasing over the past few decades.
In the US, an estimated 37.3 million people have diabetes, as indicated by abnormal fasting plasma glucose or haemoglobin HbA1. Black adults have a disproportionate diabetes burden, with an age-adjusted prevalence of 16.8% compared with 11.2% in White adults.
“Both prevalence and incidence of diabetes are rising more in Black than White adults, suggesting widening racial disparities. Socioeconomic disparities in both education and household income are also evident,” the authors wrote.
“Participants with diabetes were more likely to be female and African American and have obesity, lower incomes, and lower educational attainment than participants who did not report
