Contrary to the conventional perception that diabetes is a "rich man's disease," a survey has found that elderly, poor and less educated people, as well as Aboriginal people and those with family records of diabetes, are more likely to have the disease.
The national health survey, which was conducted last year, shows that a person's education level seems to be related to their chances of contracting diabetes, with 18 percent of the illiterate, 11.4 percent of primary school graduates, 4.8 percent of middle-high graduates, 2.5 percent of high school graduates and 1.5 percent of those with a college of higher qualification having been diagnosed with diabetes.
The survey found that 4.9 percent of people 15 years or older are diabetic, with males outnumbering females by a small margin.
In terms of education attainment, illiterates are 2.9 times as likely as those with a college education to have diabetes.
The risk for people with a family history of diabetes is 3.6 times that for people with no such history, the survey indicates.
Marking World Diabetes Day, the president of the Taiwanese Association of Diabetes Educators said that his association was focusing its campaign on telling people that diabetes is a disease of the less privileged, rather than of the well-to-do.
The less privileged are more likely to be hit by diabetes because many people in developing and developed countries are not covered by the healthcare system, while in some cases diabetics do not know that a care system is available or how to use it.
More than 1 million people in Taiwan are diabetics, according to official figures.
The figures show that one person dies of the disease about every 50 minutes, making it the nation's fourth-leading cause of death.
An official at the Bureau of Health Promotion said that at the end of last year, only 170,000 of the nation's diabetics had joined a pilot program to reward patients if their quality of life had improved as a result of medication.
The official called on more diabetics to join the program, which is aimed at enhancing the quality of care for diabetes patients and is offered at more than 100 hospitals around the country.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
A Taiwanese woman on Sunday was injured by a small piece of masonry that fell from the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican during a visit to the church. The tourist, identified as Hsu Yun-chen (許芸禎), was struck on the forehead while she and her tour group were near Michelangelo’s sculpture Pieta. Hsu was rushed to a hospital, the group’s guide to the church, Fu Jing, said yesterday. Hsu was found not to have serious injuries and was able to continue her tour as scheduled, Fu added. Mathew Lee (李世明), Taiwan’s recently retired ambassador to the Holy See, said he met
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
RSS