In France, the global prevalence of diabetes was estimated to 5% of the population in 2016, the type two diabetes (DT2) corresponding to 90% of cases. This number is widely underestimated because most people are untreated and undiagnosed. Due to the silent character of this disease, it is estimated that 20 à 30 % of diabetic adults have not yet been diagnosed. The conclusions, presented during the annual meeting of EASD in 2019, suggest that the precursor signs of this disease could be present until 20 years before the diagnosis.
Diabetes is a metabolic disease and people are diagnosed, in general, around 40-50 years old. The main risk factor of type II diabetes is lifestyle (rich diet, sedentary) but there is also other factors like hyperlipidemia, high blood pressure, high fasting blood sugar, stress, smoking, heredity, family history of diabetes, or gestational diabetes. This induces an increase of obesity, itself a major risk factor for type II diabetes occurrence.
From an economical aspect, chronic pathologies (including diabetes) represent 60% of health insurance expenses, even though it concerns 35% of insured persons, i.e. 20 million of patients. The average of annual reimbursement for a type 2 diabetic patient is 4890 euros. In this context, this study is the first step of thinking about a different, coordinated care approach, based on a preventive rather than curative approach.