Paris (AFP)

The number of new cases of diabetes diagnosed each year in France has declined between 2010 and 2017, shows a study presented Wednesday, an encouraging trend reversal if it is confirmed in the coming years.

While in 2010, 11 men over 45 years out of 1,000 became diabetic, this incidence rate decreased to 9.7 / 1,000 in 2017, according to data from researchers at Public Health France presented at the annual congress of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes in Barcelona.

Among French women over 45, the same rate went from 7.6 to 6.2, the researchers add.

In the last two decades, the incidence of type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease, was growing, favored in particular by the increase in overweight and obesity and the lack of physical activity, but also by the aging of the population.

"This observed downward trend in the incidence of type 2 diabetes could represent a spark of hope for the control of the diabetes epidemic in France," note the authors of the study.

"However, this trend will need to be evaluated over a longer period of time in future studies," they continue, adding that "more prevention efforts are needed" to confirm and amplify it.

Prevalence figures, that is the total number of people living with diabetes in France, are still increasing, particularly because people with diabetes are better treated and therefore have a longer life expectancy.

In 2017, 3.1 million French people over the age of 45 had type 2 diabetes, 12.1% of men and 8.4% of women, compared with 11.5% and 7.9% respectively. in 2010.

This study is based on data from reimbursements of anti-diabetic medicines collected by the National Health Data System (NSDS), a centralized platform created in 2017 that lists the medical procedures and drugs reimbursed by Social Security.

According to its authors, people with type 2 diabetes over the age of 45 represent 94% of the total number of cases.

Another study presented Monday at the congress reaches the same conclusions at the world level.

Australian researchers screened 275 studies of the incidence of type 2 diabetes, mostly in high-income countries.

"It appears that after an increase in incidence since the 1990s, there has been a stagnation or even perhaps a decline in the rate of new cases of type 2 diabetes in recent years", since 2010, conclude- they.

According to the International Diabetes Federation, an estimated 425 million adults were living with diabetes in 2017, and the disease is expected to reach 600 million adults by 2045.

© 2019 AFP