World Diabetes Day: free checkups from Nefrocenter specialists

Thursday, November 14 is World Diabetes Day, with free checkups in the squares of Castellammare di Stabia, Torre Annunziata, Nocera Inferiore and Nola. The event in Castellammare di Stabia runs from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in Piazza Matteotti.

Diabetes is a “social” disease, the only one to have legal recognition because its very high prevalence affects the entire population. The percentage of people with diabetes in Italy has risen from 3.7% to 5.5%. Every minute in Italy a new diagnosis of diabetes is made; every 3.5 minutes a person with diabetes has a heart attack, and every 10 minutes a person with diabetes dies.

There is a clear geographic gradient: diabetes has already exceeded 6% in Umbria, Calabria, Basilicata and Molise and 8% in Campania (where one of the highest incidence rates in Europe is observed).

According to IBDO, about 3.6 million people in Italy have diabetes, or 8% of the adult population. About 1.8 million, a further 4% of the adult population, are at risk of developing it because of reduced glucose tolerance, a sort of prediabetes state.

In the 45-74 age group, prevalence is higher among men, while in the over-75 age group it is much higher among women.

Type 2 diabetes is by far the most common, affecting about 90% of people with diabetes, compared with type 1 diabetes, which occurs in about 10%. About 4% of all pregnancies are complicated by diabetes (gestational diabetes).

In Italy, 27,000 people aged 20 to 79 die every year because of diabetes, a figure that is underestimated because many deaths from cardio-cerebrovascular causes and from cancer are attributable to diabetes mellitus.

Timely diagnosis and constant monitoring of people with diabetes, thanks to quality treatment, reduce by 10-25% the risk of minor complications (damage to the eyes and kidneys) and by 15-55% the risk of more serious complications (chronic kidney failure, coronary disease, vision loss).

The impact of diabetes is high in terms of economic cost: on average each person with the disease spends 2,600 euros a year on their health, more than double that of someone without diabetes. 7% of these annual costs come from spending on medications, while as much as 25% is linked to the costs of complications.

Through its 6 specialist centers for the treatment of diabetes and its complications, spread across Campania (AID centers in Castellammare di Stabia, Torre Annunziata, Nocera Inferiore and Nola, LID in Napoli and CMM in Cava de Tirreni), the Nefrocenter Group has for decades ensured effective action against the disease, also working in a structured way with specialists from other branches such as cardiologists, ophthalmologists, neurologists and nephrologists, and with public facilities.

The Nefrocenter centers work in the care sector, treating about 50,000 patients with diabetes. They also pursue various lines of clinical research whose results have brought the voice of Italian research to the pages of the most authoritative international scientific journals and to numerous national and international congresses.

The World Diabetes Day initiative aims to draw everyone’s attention, private citizens, heads of administrative bodies and politicians, to the great opportunity we have to stop the advance of diabetes, which can be effectively countered by greater awareness of how dangerous diabetic disease is.