The Cost of Diabetes: A Game Changer

Abstract

The past century has witnessed stunning advances in medicine and quality of life. The average life expectancy in the 19th century was about 30 years, but since 1900, it has increased dramatically by more than 30 years, of which 25 years can be attributed to advances in public health ( 1. Ten great public health achievements—United States, 1900-1999. JAMA. 1999; 281: 1481-1484 Crossref PubMed Scopus (26) Google Scholar ). Notable among the scientific breakthroughs are the discovery of penicillin and vaccines, which greatly reduced the global prevalence of communicable diseases such as smallpox. The near 50% decline in mortality from cardiovascular disease in the Western world over the past 30 years has also greatly contributed to longer life span ( 1. Ten great public health achievements—United States, 1900-1999. JAMA. 1999; 281: 1481-1484 Crossref PubMed Scopus (26) Google Scholar ). Today, the life expectancy for Canadians is 81 years and 78 years for Americans, well above the global average of 63.5 years ( 2. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) World Factbook - Rank Order - Life expectancy at birth.. The World Factbook 2010. CIA, Washington, DC2010 Google Scholar ). However, it has been estimated that life expectancy in the US will potentially decline in the 21st century because of the rapidly increasing prevalence of obesity and diabetes ( 3. Olshansky S.J. Passaro D.J. Hershow R.C. et al. A potential decline in life expectancy in the United States in the 21st century. N Engl J Med. 2005; 352: 1138-1145 Crossref PubMed Scopus (2027) Google Scholar ).