Connection With Ethnicity and Diabet - Research Paper Example

Diabetes and Ethni Executive Summary Ethni has the capa to decrease or increase the risk of individuals developing diabetes according to recent studies across the globe. The same studies hold that the prevalence of diabetes is different among various ethnic communities even if the same group of people accesses the same type of facilities. This is in addition to accessibility of various healthcare facilities as well as other economic and social features that bring the difference. The increasing prevalence in one ethnic community is a recipe for more problems concerning healthcare and treatment. Related problems include language barriers, treatment legislations, and sensitive prevention issues outside ethnicity. However, health education plays a fundamental role in preventing the prevalence of the same. Research across the world proves that both awareness and education are at the centre of limiting the flow of diabetes across the globe. Various constitutions in most countries including countries in the United Kingdom require respective health systems to isolate vulnerable ethnic communities and design the right treatment policies. Contents Executive Summary 2 Introduction 4 Background Information 4 Method 5 Results 5 Discussion 6 Risk factors for type 2 diabetes 6 Ethnic Differences 7 The toxic urban environment 8 Incidences of diabetes related conditions 9 Ethnicity and Chronic Diabetes 10 Conclusion 10 Bibliography 11 Introduction Researchers estimate that approximately two point eight percent of the world’s population suffers from diabetes. Type 2 diabetes takes care of ninety percent of the prevalence across the world. However, there is great difference in the progression of the disease, prevalence, and incidence of diabetes among different ethnic communities. This underlines the unique nature of the disease as well as its overcoming vascular complexity in addition to distinct variations in the management of the same. Information from African-Caribbeans and South Asians living in the United Kingdom while comparing the same to that collected from outside the United Kingdom. Scholars propose that differences in ethnic incidences require further analysis as well as several other factors related to treatment and prevention. Background Information Ethnicity constitutes geography, edifying traditions, religion, ancestry, and history. Culture that cuts across a number of people includes religion, language, and diet. This helps in defining ethnicity further as a cluster of people with shared identity that lives among a mainstream group (Schneider, 2002, p. 1293). In the last decade of the twentieth century, the population of ethnic minority group grew by a staggering fifty-three percent. According to the two thousand and one censuses in the United Kingdom, the population of the same group stood at four point six million compared to three million ten years before (Gower, 2003, p. 1050). This indicates clearly that the population in the United Kingdom is multiethnic. People from South Asia constitute half of the minority ethnic population. These are people from Pakistani, India, and Bangladeshi among many other people from the Asia. Twenty-five percent are Africa-Caribbeans while the remaining percentage represents people of mixed origin (Heintz E, 2010, p. 2153). It is essential for the population and health professionals to comprehend variations in diabetes manifestations as well prevention and management among different communities because of the increase in the number of people from ethnic communities at high risk of developing the disease. They include people from West Africa, Caribbeans, and South Asians (UK National Screening Committee, 2007, Para 15). Method The study of Diabetes especially type 2 diabetes across different ethnic groups in the United Kingdom is cross-sectional research on ethnic differences of the prevalence of diabetes. Researchers studied people in the diabetes register in South East London as well as West Yorkshire (Karter, 2003, p. 28). Health professionals also included screened and treated people in the study apart from those on the watch list whose conditions the clinical officers were monitoring. The study took place from April two thousand and thirteen to January two 1000 and fourteen (Wacholder, 2002, p. 517). Information gathered and studied included among others the ethnic group, age, sex, presented visual perception, various types of diabetes, and results from the process of grading diabetes. Results from the white European patients became the control experiment (Kaufman, 2001, p. 295). This means that researchers compared results from ethnic minority population to those from white Europeans in the process of standardizing. This was in the process of getting prevalence estimates of diabetes. Results Research covered fifty-eight thousand patients found on the registers of the two types of diabetes. Out of this, researchers found information from fifty thousand people representing an approximate eighty-nine percent. Slightly over forty-six thousand patients had type 2 diabetes while a paltry three thousand four hundred people had type 1 diabetes (Kempen, 2004, p. 557). When compared to the white European population, type 2 diabetes is three to five times more prevalent between the South Asian and African-Caribbeans living in the United Kingdom. South Asians are on the higher end of the risk scale (Wilkinson, 2003, p. 1682). The difference in prevalence among white Europeans and Chinese in the United Kingdom is insignificant. Discussion Diabetes especially type 2 is a condition resulting from prolonged resistance of insulin by the body of a human being. Statistics from the World Health Organization show that the disease affects two point nine million people in Britain, which constitutes part of the three hundred and ten million people affected by the condition across the globe. The government and other agencies spend almost twelve billion pounds every to treat and maintain the disease in United Kingdom. Related conditions stabilized by health agencies include strokes, heart conditions, blindness, as well as kidney disorders. Although health experts, government institutions, and other organizations understood that people of African, South Asian, and African-Caribbean origin in the United Kingdom were at a high risk of developing diabetes, they did not understand the dynamics of the development. However, following this research, it is now clear that despite the fact these groups group the disease around their midlives, the risk increases as people grow in age. Risk factors for type 2 diabetes The focus narrows down to the analysis of type 2 diabetes because its level of prevalence is far much high compared to type 1 diabetes. Scholars confirm sufficient evidence demonstrating the fact that particular ethnic groups are at high risk of developing diabetes (Phimister, 2003, p. 1082). Adult South Asians are more obese as opposed to other ethnic communities with increased distribution of fats. This leads to resistance of insulin compared to people of white European origin. Other factors that increase prevalence include lower consumption vitamin B12 as well as folate due to excessive cooking of vegetables. This is in addition to reduced physical activity among many more (Yorkshire & the Humber Quality Observatory, 2011, Para 9). Children of South Asian origin in the United Kingdom also show higher risk factors making the situation precarious. Ethnic Differences Studies indicate that more than half of the population of ethnic minorities living in the United Kingdom, which constitutes people of African-Caribbean and South Asian descent will develop diabetes by the age of eighty (Garvican L, 2003, Para. 7). This shows that the future state of prevalence is frightening. Same studies indicate that the condition in Africa and Asia will be worse considering the health facilities in the two regions. Asians and Africans living in the United Kingdom appear to respond negatively to the western lifestyle. This increases their chances of developing type two 2 diabetes (Williams, 1997, p. 327). The urban conditions predisposing Asians and Africans in the United Kingdom include lack of physical exercise and a poor diet among many more. In addition to this research, other older studies conducted for more than twenty years document that the number of people of the Asian and African origin developing type 2 diabetes is double that of white Europeans by the time these people attain the age of eighty (Wong, 2006, p. 451). This rate is alarming because a breakdown leads to the conclusion that while half of Africans, South Asians, and African-Caribbeans develop diabetes by the age of eighty, only one out of a population of five white Europeans will develop the same disease (Liu, Y, 2002, 2126). People and institutions charged with the responsibility of drafting and implementing health policies continue to underestimate the magnitude of the problem. The number of people affected continues to increase posing a significant threat to nations, health institutions, family, and individuals. The toxic urban environment Studies carried out in the late eighties show that people of South Asia origin develop type 2 diabetes five years younger than people of African-Caribbean and African descent. While physicians diagnosed the latter group at around the age of sixty-five, the same appeared among South Asians at an average of sixty years (Diabetes, 2011, p. 62). This means that men of South Asian descent are at a greater risk. Increased insulin resistance by the body as well as individuals with too much fat surrounding their body centre in their mid forties stands at higher risks of developing diabetes and related conditions such as obesity and other kidney disorders Thomas, 2002, p. 509). The factors that help the body in processing sugar including resistance to the effects of insulin and prevalence of obesity are the distinctive features that separate the rate of prevalence of diabetes among women of African-Caribbean and Asian origin (Shriver, 1997, p. 960). Reduced physical activity a component of lifestyle and increased consumption of high calorie foods are the main factors that increase the prevalence of diabetes and related conditions. This explains why scholars refer to the urban environment as toxic. The rate at which ethnic minorities in the United Kingdom develop diabetes is alarming especially in middle-aged people (Davis, 2001, p. 1168). Scholars hold that this is the best starting point for governments and other health professionals in the United Kingdom, Asia, and Africa to start engaging in regulatory measures. The biggest issue is for people who are not of European descent adopting western lifestyles. Developing regions including Africa and Asia have increasing high rates of the development of chronic diseases among them heart diseases and diabetes following change in diets and lifestyles. Incidences of diabetes related conditions First, obesity is the biggest contributor factor to the capacity of the human body to resist effects of insulin, which results decreasing sensitivity to insulin (Cooper, 2003, p. 24). This is a precursor to increased blood flow through portals carrying fatty acids coming from the visceral fat. Scholars aver that a BMI rising above twenty kilograms per square meter puts a person at a risk of developing type 2 diabetes (Rivara, 2001, p. 119). This is in addition to an individual’s genetic history of diabetes, advancement in age, smoking, and reduced physical activity (Reitnauer, 1982, p. 534). Comparatively, studies still show that people of South Asian origin have higher risks with their BMI being lower than those of white European descent are. Statistics from other continents show that even in the United States of America the prevalence of obesity is high among people of black origin compared to whites (Williams, 2000, p. 533). Dyslipidaemia is another common condition among people suffering from diabetes in the United Kingdom. Atherosclerosis, a common condition in people with type 2 diabetes increases from higher fusion of complete cholesterol and plasma lipoproteins (Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study Research Group, 1991, p. 801). The structure of functioning of endothelial cells tempered with by augmentation of lipoprotein glycation and oxidation is prevalent in diabetes. Indians with normal sugar levels report lower levels of cholesterol in their bodies. This group of people is not likely to develop diabetes. The third condition related to diabetes is hypertension. This closely relates to rising levels of blood sugar. Hypertension is prevalent among people of African-Caribbean descent living in the United Kingdom (Burchard, 2003, p. 1173). However, this is dangerous because it affects people both people with diabetes and those without diabetes. The condition increases to alarming rates when the affected population suffers from all or any type diabetes. Medical reports indicate that the situation is worst when the individual suffers from nephropathy. The other related condition is gout and its close associate hyperuricamia. The two are prevalent in type 2 diabetes. People of black origin are at higher risk of developing gout. Ethnicity and Chronic Diabetes A study conducted in the United Kingdom for period exceeding twenty years indicated reduced rates of macrovascular and microvascular among African-Caribbeans compared to people with those of European origin (Cooper, 2003, p. 1169). This means that the rate of developing heart diseases among African-Caribbeans is lower compared to Europeans. On the other hand, no differences appeared among women in amputation of diabetes within the United Kingdom (Schwartz, 2001, p. 1393). Conclusion Researchers in the discipline of medicine continue to focus on outcomes of ethnic and racial differences in the effectiveness of accessing medical care, exposure to risk factors, health results, genetic identities, as well as responses to therapy. However, this report identifies that the new discovery comes with a lot of debate and controversy. The United Kingdom and other western countries have enacted laws that prohibit eugenics and racism, a feature common in history full of discrimination. The past was full of differences in the accessibility of quality health care especially in sensitive diseases. Presently, health systems and agencies in the United Kingdom recognize the value of ethnicity in researching issues related to health matters. The agencies expect researchers to cover minority groups and the most vulnerable ones in their reports submitted to the authorizing boards. 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