Good Example Of Diabetes: Status Report On Non-Communicable Diseases In Malta Report

Introduction

The World Health Organization offered that the prevalence of non-communicable diseases (NCD) has surprising increased over the last ten years. This has become an alarming issue considering the merits that such diseases are highly manageable if intervention and proper information has become available early. However, mortality rate for non-communicable diseases has drastically increased. This is largely due to poor lifestyle, lack of early detection and intervention and the limited information.
In Malta, the most common non-communicable disease is diabetes. Diabetes is a condition that limits the ability of the body to process its glucose normally. Both type 1and 2 are prevalent in the nation. Type 1 diabetes is condition, which causes pancreas to be destroyed by immune system. Type 2 on their part, develops over time, which causes the body cell to resist the insulin effects. Its risk factor is developing overweight condition or obese. In relation to this, the present paper aims to identify and analyze a list of five sources, which could be consulted in the study of non-communicable disease, specifically diabetes, burden in Malta. The sources will analyze the measures of the disease frequency, the risk factor for the condition, mortality burden, as well as, complications rate.

The Local Scene of Non-Communicable Disease

The local scene of the effects of the disease is presented by Bonita (et al. 580). The source illustrates the mortality rates because of the diabetes disease and others in the country. In Malta, the largest percent of deaths registered in the country emanates from non-communicable diseases, particularly diabetes. For instance, the National Mortality Register in the nation indicated that 82% of all the diseases in year 2013 were due to non-communicable diseases. 43% of this statistics were complications caused by diabetes. While diabetes is not directly responsible for the deaths of these patients, it was ruled that it was diabetes that initially triggered the complications relating to kidney, liver and heart conditions that had been the identified cause of death.
Diabetes had been identified to cause numerous complications is left unmanaged. Among the most significant complications of diabetes relates to cardiac problems and liver problems. This is why the WHO along with the different organizations concerned with the study and research of diabetes urges people who are already predisposed to the condition to seek medical intervention to help manage and control their blood sugar level to prevent any further complications which can be detrimental to an individual’s life.

Prevalence of the Condition

Berrios, et al. illustrates the most common non-communicable disease in the nation; depending on the number of deaths, it causes (99). It indicates that in the nation, the most prevalent non-communicable diseases are diabetes, which account for approximately half of the deaths in all age groups. Cancer is the second in prevalence, accounting for a quarter of the deaths. In addition, variant respiratory diseases cause approximately eight percent of the reported non-communicable diseases deaths while cardiovascular disease accounts for about four percent of the total mortality. However, quite significantly, diabetes has been identified as the focus of concern for health officials in Malta. This is the case because many health authorities in the country believed that the other non-communicable diseases in the nation that has resulted to the deaths of many residents was only complications of unmanaged diabetes.

Who is at risk of the disease?

Lee, I-Min, et al. discusses in details the prevalence and spread of diabetes different age groups in Malta (222). All the age groups in the population, as well as, all regions of the Malta nation are prone and affected by the diseases. More specifically, this non-communicable diseases, as illustrated by Lee, I-Min, et al, is often associated and more prone to the older age groups (224). Their research shows that the largest percent of the deaths resulting from diabetes is from the age groups of 65 years and above. From this, most of the deaths were from the people who were economically unstable.
However, the recent findings of the source have found that the disease is also affecting more people at their young age. The source further indicates that despite the disease being more common to the aged, all ages including the adults, elderly, and children are all prone to the risk factor that leads to non-communicable diseases infection. These risks factor, as illustrated by Lee, I-Min, et al., include tobacco smoke exposure, unhealthy diets, physical inactivity, or a harmful and restricted consumption of alcohol (227).
Lee, I-Min, et al further extends to discuss who may be prone to non-communicable diseases infection, by indicating that the driving force of the diseases includes ageing, rapid growth of unplanned urbanization and unhealthy lifestyles in the country (221). Example of these unhealthy lifestyles in Malta include consumption of unhealthy diet, which is demonstrated through obesity, elevated blood lipids, increases glucose in the blood and rise in the blood pressure. These are commonly referred to as intermediate risk factors, which commonly lead to cardiovascular diseases, a type of non-communicable disease.

Risk Factors

Moura, et al. analyzes the risk factors that may lead to the diabetes diseases infections (20). From the source, there are two major categories of risk factors, recognized as modifiable behavior and metabolic risk factors. The behavior risk factors are those human behaviors that expose them to risky situations. Example of these includes tobacco smoking, harmful and excess consumption of alcohol, eating unhealthy diet, and physical inactivity. On their part, metabolic or physiological factors lead to physiological changes in the body. The changes increase the chances of NCDs diseases infection. These risk factors include obesity, high levels of glucose in the blood, rise in blood pressure, and high levels of fat in the blood.

Socioeconomic impact of the NCDs

The reason for this observation is that they are at a higher risk of harmful drugs exposure such as limited health services access, unhealthy food, and tobacco. Schmidt, et al. further illustrates that health care cost for NCDs is high and the household resources, leaving the family poor and extending the effect to the nation, in general (1949). In addition to the above, Schmidt, et al. also discusses control and prevention measures for non-communicable diseases (1954).

Conclusion

Based on the information and data drawn from the resources used for this paper it showed that the incidence and prevalence of diabetes in Malta is supported by the very limited and restricted capacity of health officials in the country to address the situation. It was found that while hereditary diabetes is still a significant factor, poor lifestyle and treatment options further aggravate the condition. In addition, it was also found that diabetes would not be fatal had it not been for the complications associated with the illness. Hence, diabetes is perceived as the leading cause of death in Malta.

Works Cited

Berrios, X., et al. "Distribution and prevalence of major risk factors of non-communicable diseases in selected countries: the WHO Inter-Health Programme." Bulletin of the World Health Organization 75.2 (1997): 99.
Bonita, Ruth, et al. "Country actions to meet UN commitments on non-communicable diseases: a stepwise approach." The Lancet 381.9866 (2013): 575-584.
Ezzati, Majid, et al. "Selected major risk factors and global and regional burden of disease." The Lancet 360.9343 (2002): 1347-1360.
Lee, I-Min, et al. "Effect of physical inactivity on major non-communicable diseases worldwide: an analysis of the burden of disease and life expectancy." The Lancet 380.9838 (2012): 219-229.
Moura, Erly Catarina, et al. "Prevalence and social distribution of risk factors for chronic noncommunicable diseases in Brazil." Revista Panamericana de Salud Pública 26.1 (2009): 17-22
Schmidt, Maria Inês, et al. "Chronic non-communicable diseases in Brazil: burden and current challenges." The Lancet 377.9781 (2011): 1949-1961.