The not so sweet truth: A deep dive into diabetes
Percept | January 2022
Diabetes was once considered an uncommon disease primarily affecting the wealthy, with lowincome
countries largely unaffected. However, the combination of an ageing population and a rapid
demographic and economic transition seen in LMICs, such as South Africa, has resulted in a substantial
increase in prevalence from 4.5% in 2010 to 12.8% in 2020. While diabetes is classified as an NCD, it
is often “communicable” in nature due to environmental, lifestyle and genetic factors such as nutrition,
physical exercise and hereditary predispositions, which are often not a choice for individuals.