Summary
A diabetes prevalence study on an isolated urbanized Central Pacific island has established a prevalence rate of 34.4% in individuals aged 15 years and over. Of these, 10.4% had previously known diabetes; in the others the diagnosis was made on the basis of a plasma glucose level of at least 160 mg/100 ml 2h after a 75 gm oral glucose load. A further 11.3% of the subjects had borderline diabetes as judged by a 2-h plasma glucose of between 140 and 159 mg/100 ml. Of the diabetics, 72% had a positive family history of diabetes. The high prevalence rate appears to be related to a number of factors including a diabetic genotype, urbanization, and obesity.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Wilkerson, H.L.C., Krall, L.P.: Diabetes in a New England town: A study of 3516 persons in Oxford, Massachusetts. J.A.M.A.135, 209–216 (1947)
Scott, E.M., Griffiths, I.V.: Diabetes mellitus in Eskimos. Metabolism6, 320–325 (1957)
Sagild, U., Littauer, J., Jepersen, C.S., Andersen, S.: Epidemiological studies in Greenland 1962–1964. 1. Diabetes mellitus in Eskimos. Acta Med. Scand.179, 29–39 (1966)
Mouratoff, G.J., Carroll, N.V., Scott, E.M.: Diabetes mellitus in Eskimos. J.A.M.A.199, 107–112 (1967)
Bennett, P.M., Burch, T.A., Miller, M.: Diabetes mellitus in American (Pima) Indians. Lancet1971 II, 125–128
West, K.M.: Diabetes in American Indians and other native populations of the New World. Diabetes23, 841–855 (1974)
Fajans, S.S., Conn, J.W.: Prediabetes, subclinical diabetes, and latent clinical diabetes: interpretation, diagnosis, and treatment. In: On the nature and treatment of diabetes (eds. B.S. Liebel, G.A. Wrenshall), pp. 641–656. Amsterdam: Excerpta Medica Foundation 1965
Stein, J.H., West, K.M., Robey, J.M., Tirador, D.F., McDonald, G.W.: The high prevalence of abnormal glucose tolerance in Cherokee Indians of North Carolina. Arch. Intern. Med.116, 842–846 (1965)
Welborn, T.A., Curnow, D.H., Wearne, J.T., Cullen, K.J., McCall, M.G., Stenhouse, N.S.: Diabetes detected by bloodsugar measurement after a glucose load: report from the Busselton survey, 1966. Med. J. Aust.2, 778–783 (1968)
Marine, N., Vinik, A.I., Edelstein, O., Jackson, W.P.U.: Diabetes, hyperglycaemia and glycosuria among Indians, Malays and Africans (Bantu) in Cape Town, South Africa. Diabetes18, 840–857 (1969)
McDonald, G.W.: Epidemiology of diabetes. In: Diabetes mellitus: theory and practice (eds. M. Ellenberg, H. Rifkin), pp. 528–593, New York: McGraw-Hill 1970
Pincus, G., White, P.: On the inheritance of diabetes mellitus. I. An analysis of 657 family histories. Am. J. Med. Sci.186, 1–14 (1933)
Zimmet, P., Taft, P.: The high prevalence of diabetes mellitus on a Central Pacific island. In: Epidemiology of diabetes (eds. M. Miller, P.H. Bennett), New York: Academic Press (in press)
Prior, I.A.M., Davidson, F.: The epidemiology of diabetes in Polynesians and Europeans in New Zealand and the Pacific. N. Z. Med. J.65, 375–383 (1966)
Poon-King, T., Henry, M.V., Rampersad, F.: Prevalence and natural history of diabetes in Trinidad. Lancet 1968I, 155–160
Reed, D., Labarthe, D., Stallones, R., Brody, J.: Epidemiological studies of serum glucose levels among Micronesians. Diabetes22, 129–136 (1973)
Welborn, T.A., Murphy, B.P., Stewart, A.J., Fullerton, R., Finch, P.S.: Prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors including fasting triglyceride levels in the Cunderdin Health Survey of 1971. Med. J. Aust.2, 199 (1976)
Zimmet, P., Taft, P., Guinea, A., Bennett, D., Ringrose, H., Thoma, K.: Epidemiological factors relating to the high diabetes prevalence on a Pacific island. Diabetologia12 (Abstr.), 421 (1976)
National Health and Medical Research Council.: Dietary allowance for use in Australia. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Services 1971
World Health Organization.: The health aspects of food and nutrition. Manila: Western Pacific Regional Office 1969
West, K.M.: Prevention and therapy of diabetes mellitus. Nutr. Rev.33, 193–198 (1975)
Zimmet, P.: Clinical and epidemiological aspects of diabetes in the South Pacific region. In: Report of Seventh Conference on Health Services pp. 15–88. Noumea: South Pacific Commission (1976)
Kingston, R.G., Price, A.V.G.: Diabetic surveys in Papua. Papua New Guinea Med. J.7, 33–35 (1964)
Cassidy, J.T.: Diabetes in Fiji. N. Z. Med. J.66, 167–172 (1967)
Sloan, N.R.: Ethnic distribution of diabetes mellitus in Hawaii. J.A.M.A.183, 419–424 (1963)
Yen, S.S.C.: Abnormal carbohydrate metabolism and pregnancy. Am. J. Obstet. Gynecol.90, 468–473 (1964)
Wise, P.H., Edwards, F.M., Thomas, D.W., Elliot, R.B., Hatcher, L., Craig, R.: Hyperglycaemia in the urbanized aboriginal. The Davenport survey. Med. J. Aust.2, 1001–1006 (1970)
Neel, J.V.: Diabetes mellitus: a thrifty genotype rendered detrimental by “progress”? Am. J. Hum. Genet.14, 353–362 (1962)
Schaefer, O.: Glucose tolerance testing in Canadian Eskimos. A preliminary report and a hypothesis. Can. Med. Assoc. J.99, 252–262 (1968)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zimmet, P., Taft, P., Guinea, A. et al. The high prevalence of diabetes mellitus on a Central Pacific island. Diabetologia 13, 111–115 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00745137
Received:
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00745137