Burden of diabetes mellitus attributable to demographic levels in Qatar: An emerging public health problem

BackgroundDiabetes is one of the main contributors to ill health and premature mortality worldwide and its prevalence has been rising during the last decades.AimThe aim of the present study was to quantify the burden of disease in terms of deaths and loss of healthy life years (DALYs) attributed to diabetes by its demographic levels in the State of Qatar.Materials and methodsThe methods were largely based on the established Global Burden of Disease methodology and use the burden of disease in terms of disability adjusted life years (DALYs) and the years lost due to disability (YLD) as the outcome measure. We calculated years lost due to disability (YLD) and years life lost (YLL) attributable to diabetes. The study was conducted during the period from June 2013 to January 2014.ResultsThe study findings revealed that disability adjusted life years (DALYs) has been increasing across the years and reached to 4.35 in 2011 from 2.58 in 2007. DALYs for men was remarkably higher than women during the period (2007–2011). Diabetes mellitus was the 6th leading cause of disease burden in Qatar (3.8%). The YLD showed a sharp increase in men (2.52 in 2011 from 1.34 in 2007) and women (1.05 in 2011 from 0.33 in 2007) during the year 2011. YLL portion of women enlarged considerably in 2011 (0.10) compared to 2010 (0.04). YLL for men and women was fluctuating across the years with a decrease in 2011 (18%) from 2007 (35%). Men and women in the age group 30–44 years had the highest peak across the years.ConclusionThe study findings revealed that diabetes disease burden was considerably high in Qatar, particularly in the working age group. DALYs has been increasing across the years.