Some aspects of diabetes care in Chengdu

The great impact of diabetes mellitus (DM) on the development of China economically and sociomedically was firstly recognized by knowing the overall prevalence of the disease being 0.67% in the whole country from a nationwide cooperative survey in 1980. Shortly after the cooperative survey an epidemiological study carried out in Chengdu yielded a prevalence in DM of 1.12%, which was almost double the overall prevalence and slightly higher than that of Beijing (1.10%)-the highest one among the 14 places in the cooperative study. Increasing prevalence of DM is a general trend. Over the past decade the incidence of diabetes in hospitalized patients at the First University Hospital, WCUMS, increased from 5.7 to 13.54 per thousand. Factors that fluence the increment of prevalence of DM include increase of total calorie intake (2680 kcal/day in 1990-close to the average world level), inappropriate high carbohydrate diet habit, change of life style, e.g. urbanization, mental stress, and ageing of the population. Primary and secondary care conducted in recent decades involve nutritional intervention, education via news media and workshop, foundation of prevention networks and providing better clinical and laboratory services, etc. Future improvement of diabetes care in this region is determined by activation of the public, motivation of the policy makers, more effective education and propagation by an influenced organization, fund support, man power and resources development, and domestic and international communications and collaborations.