Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Diabetes is one of the most challenging health problems in the world. The degree of prevention or control of complications directly affects patients’ mortality. Therefore, it is crucial to control the risk factors of diabetes. We investigated the prevalence, treatment, and control of diagnosed diabetes in Korean adults from 1998 to 2010.

Methods: The Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare conducted the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) in the years 1998 (I), 2001 (II), 2005 (III), 2007–2009 (IV), and 2010 (V). We estimated the prevalence of diagnosed diabetes in Korean adults and the proportions of well-controlled diabetes, as defined having HbA1c <7.0%, blood pressure <130/80 mmHg, and LDL cholesterol <100 mg/dl.

Results: The prevalence of diagnosed diabetes increased significantly from 3.2% in 1998 to 6.4% in 2010 (P<0.0001). The prevalence of adults with diagnosed diabetes achieving blood pressure, and LDL cholesterol target levels increased from 23.8% to 54.2% (P<0.0001), and 25.7% to 47.7% (P<0.0001) respectively. But the percentage of achieving glycemic goals did not increased significantly from 42.5 to 49.1% (P=0.3034). Furthermore, there were significant increases in the proportions of individuals achieving all three target levels, from 2.7% in 2005 to 8.7% in 2010 (P<0.0001).

Conclusion: The prevalence of diagnosed diabetes in Korea increased significantly from 1998 to 2010. The percentages of those achieving all recommendations of controlling risk factors have increased, but are still not satisfactory.