Aboriginal women need to eat right and exercise more to head off a wave of diabetes, according to a new study.
A report published last week on the Canadian Medical Association Journal website found that First Nations women were about four times more likely to have diabetes than other women. Aboriginal men were about 2.5 times more likely to have it than other men.
Previous studies have established higher rates of diabetes amongst aboriginals compared to other Canadians, said Roland Dyck, a kidney specialist at the University of Saskatchewan and the study's lead author, but this one's found striking differences between the two groups.
Most diabetic aboriginals were young women, for example, while most diabetic non-aboriginals were old men. Aboriginal women were also about 25 per cent more likely to develop diabetes than aboriginal men.
Communities need young women to stay active and lose weight to stem a rising tide of diabetes, Dyck said. "We have to change the way we live."
Lifestyle problem
The study was based on the medical records of about a million people from 1980 to 2005. It looked at about 91,000 cases of diabetes, about 8,300 of which were aboriginal.
Diabetes rates more than doubled amongst aboriginal women during this time period, the study found, with one in five now suffering from it. Rates for aboriginal women roughly tripled. Non-aboriginal rates rose in a similar manner.
Aboriginals were most likely to be diabetic if they were women aged 40 to 49, the study found. Non-aboriginals were most at risk if they were men over 70. "Diabetes is a disease of young First Nations adults with a marked predilection for women," it concludes. "In contrast, diabetes is a disease of aging non-First Nations adults that is most common in men."
One possible explanation is gestational diabetes, Dyck said, a form of temporary diabetes that kicks in during pregnancy. It's much more common amongst aboriginal women than others, he noted, and is known to raise a mother and child's risk of getting diabetes. "The offspring of women who have diabetes are more likely to have diabetes themselves," he said, so this could create a vicious cycle.
Diabetes rates increased for all groups during the study period, Dyck noted, a trend he attributed to higher rates of obesity due to less exercise and poor eating habits. Aboriginals have higher rates of poverty on top of this, and have recently switched away from more active traditional lifestyles.
Canada faces a surge in diabetes as aboriginal teens grow up and non-aboriginal baby-boomers hit their 70s, Dyck said, which will mean more diabetes-related complications such as blindness, kidney failure and amputation. "Unless we get a handle on the rising rate of obesity and falling physical activity levels, I'm pessimistic things will get better any time soon."
Exercise solution
The study's results came as little surprise to Joanna Campiou, the diabetes care co-ordinator in Alexander. She's seen more and more cases of diabetes on the reserve over the last few years, with most sufferers being overweight women aged 30 to 40. "There's a high number of diabetes [cases] in Alexander and not enough education to prevent it," she said. There aren't many exercise places in town either.
Alexander holds regular diabetes education and diagnosis clinics, Campiou said, and recently started a weight-loss challenge. She also runs a home gardening program to get people exercising and eating healthy food.
Aboriginal children are about three to four times more likely to have Type II diabetes than other kids, Dyck said, so they should be targeted for diabetes education. "We have to start early."
The study can be found at www.cmaj.ca.
