Prevalence of Diabetes Mellitus and Prediabetes in Bulgaria in 2024
Author: Borissova, Anna-Maria I., Trifonova, Boyana C., Dakovska, Lilia N., Topchieva, Neriman E., Vukov, Mircho D.1
Abstracts:
Diabetes mellitus is a serious chronic disease that causes many complications, suffering for the patient and his family and imposes significant costs both personal and public. The disease has an epidemic nature and this requires regular screening to update the amount of health care.
The aim of the present study is to determine the current prevalence of diabetes mellitus and prediabetes among the Bulgarian population over 20 years of age.
Material and methods: The data were obtained from a Bulgarian multicenter study, which is essentially transversal and includes 16 Bulgarian regions with a total of 936 individuals – women and men with an average age of 50,57±13,61 years. The age selection was in accordance with the methodology of the International Dia betes Federation for assessing the prevalence of diabetes among adults (20-79 years), as well as according to the latest population census by the National Statistical Institute (NSI, 2022). Diabetes status was defined according to the criteria of the Report of a WHO/IDF Consultation (Geneva, 2016). Statistical analyses were performed with SPSS 13,0. Results and discussion: Diabetes in the country has a prevalence of 16,55% (diagnosed – 8,22% and undiagnosed – 8,33%), and prediabetes – 20,6% (Impaired glucose tolerance – 8,2% and Impaired fasting glycаemia – 12,4%). The incidence of diabetes was significantly higher in men compared to women – 63,9% diabetic men versus 36,1% diabetic women (p<0,001). The incidence of diabetes increased with age and there were significant differences between the young group aged 20-44 years with the other two groups (9% vs. 35,5% for the group 45-59 years, p<0,05; 9% vs. 55,5% for the group 60-79 years, p<0,001).
Conclusion: The prevalence of known and newly diagnosed diabetes is identical, and this is a sad indictment of the poor state of our health system, which has not introduced mechanisms for the early detection of diabetes.
