Basic facts about diabetes and the prevalence in Ghana
Diabetes is a chronic health condition which affects how our body processes glucose, a type of sugar that serves as the body's main source of energy. In other words, diabetes is the chronic medical condition that affects how your body turns food into energy.
Over time, it is observed that the body becomes unable to produce enough insulin to regulate blood sugar levels properly.
According to the Oxford Languages dictionary, insulin is a hormone produced in the pancreas by the islets of Langerhans, which regulates the amount of glucose in the blood and it is the lack of insulin that causes a form of diabetes.
Globally, the consequence of diabetes can be fatal as it is regarded as one of the leading causes of death, increasingly in middle-to low-income countries such as Ghana.
Nonetheless, this polygenic disease can be managed well through exercise and weight loss or control, and diabetes meal planning doesn't have to be complicated. If not managed properly, it will lead to blindness, amputation, kidney failure, and other conditions.
Types of Diabetes
The main types of diabetes are type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes as well as gestational diabetes. The causes of diabetes usually vary depending on the type of diabetes:
Type-1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks and destroys the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin. Without insulin, glucose cannot enter the cells to be used as energy, and instead builds up in the bloodstream, and this leads to high blood sugar levels.
The exact cause of this autoimmune response is not fully understood, but believed to involve a combination of genetic and environmental factors.
Type-1 diabetes is generally diagnosed in childhood or adolescence, and requires a lifelong insulin therapy.
Type-2 diabetes is a metabolic disorder occurring when the body becomes resistant to effects of insulin, or when the pancreas is unable to produce enough insulin to meet the body's needs.
The Type-2 diabetes is mostly linked with factors such as obesity, physical inactivity, poor diet, genetic factors and a sedentary lifestyle which is usually diagnosed in adulthood. Therefore, in addition to insulin therapy, the Type-2 diabetes can be managed with lifestyle changes such as exercise and a healthy diet.
Gestational diabetes is the type of diabetes which occurs during pregnancy and is caused by hormonal changes that affect insulin sensitivity. Studies have shown that women who are overweight or obese, have a family history of diabetes, or are older than 25 are at higher risk of developing gestational diabetes.
Other factors identified with potential to increase the risk of developing diabetes include age, ethnicity, family history, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and a history of gestational diabetes or polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).
Diabetes can have serious long-term health consequences, including damage to the blood vessels, nerves, and organs such as the kidneys, eyes, and heart. It is important for people with diabetes to monitor their blood sugar levels regularly, take their medications as prescribed, and make lifestyle changes to help manage the condition.
The prevalence of diabetes in Ghana
In Africa alone, more than twenty-four million adults are living with diabetes with experts warning that the number could rise to fifty-five million adults by 2045.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), diabetes accounts for the lives of 416,000 people on the continent and it is foreseen that it could become a leading cause of death in Africa by 2030. Diabetes is the only major non-communicable disease according to several reports whereby the risk of dying early is increasing, rather than decreasing.
Particularly in Ghana, epidemiological trends are indicating that the Type-2 Diabetes has affected approximately six percent of adults, a percentage that is expected to rise further. This represents more than 4.16 million people while prediabetic patients were around 4.6 million people.
Studies conducted in Ghana have shown the prevalence of diabetes to be between 2.6% – 9% and the Ghana Health Service posts an average of 200,000 cases of diabetes are reported to health facilities yearly.
The Non-communicable Diseases department of the Ghana Health Service reports that children are not spared the exhausting effects of diabetes which affected a significant number of them, many of whom were not recognized.
Unlike adults though, children with diabetes will live unseemly with it for a very long time but affects their productivity. However, there are many healthy-looking children who walk around with the condition without knowing about it.
As diabetes mellitus (Type-2 diabetes) screening is not an everyday activity in Ghana, tests are only performed at the request of the medical personnel as part of diagnosis when patients visit health facilities. This explains why there is scanty data on the prevalence of the condition.
Medical practitioners face a greater challenge in administering diabetes mellitus tests in rural areas due to cost, which is not covered and is dependent on patients’ socio-economic standing.
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