A group of scientists from Singapore, the US, and China looked at data from a report called the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) over the past 20 years.
They focused on the impact of metabolic diseases, which are closely linked to each other. The GBD report collects data from more than 9,000 researchers in 162 countries and territories.
It tracks premature death and disability caused by 370 diseases and injuries in 204 countries and territories, by age and sex, from 1990 to the present.
The researchers wanted to find out how metabolic diseases, such as hypertension, type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, obesity, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, are affecting people.
The researchers found that the rates of all metabolic diseases have increased globally between 2000 and 2019.
These diseases are linked to obesity, insulin resistance, glucose, and lipid metabolism, inflammation, and cytokines.
Metabolic diseases often happen together, share common risk factors, and are linked to a higher risk of disability, cancer, and premature death.
The increase in metabolic diseases was seen mostly in countries with high averages in income, education, and fertility rates. However, it was still trending upward globally regardless of these factors.
The Eastern Mediterranean regions of the study had the highest mortality rates from metabolic diseases, followed by countries with lower income, education, and fertility averages.
While the rates of metabolic disease are trending up, mortality rates decreased for high cholesterol, hyperlipidemia, high blood pressure, and liver disease.
The obesity-related death rate has remained the highest of all the diseases studied.
There was a yearly rise of 0.48% in disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), which is an estimate of years lost due to premature mortality, accounting for 160.2 million years of life lost in 2019 alone.
Type 2 diabetes-related death rates remained stable, but the global rates increased by 1.56% yearly from 2000 to 2019.
There were 6.6 million years of life lost (DALYs) in 2019 due to type 2 diabetes, with a yearly increase of 0.77% from 2000 to 2019.
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease-related deaths decreased by 0.63% yearly, but rates of the disease increased by 0.83% annually, resulting in 4.4 million years of life lost (DALYs) in 2019.
In conclusion, the study shows that although death rates for metabolic diseases have remained stagnant or decreased, the acquisition of the diseases is increasing globally.
The researchers emphasized the need to address the sex-regional-socioeconomic disparities in mortality and the urgent attention needed to combat metabolic diseases.
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The study was conducted by Nicholas W.S. Chew et al and published in Cell Metabolism.
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