Three hundred thousand people in Italy with type 1 diabetes, with a prevalence of 0.22% among pediatric children and a constantly increasing incidence. These are some of the Istat data from which the presentation of the think tank on began in the Senate Empowerment, prevention and access to innovation for people with diabetes, promoted by Cittadinanzattiva in collaboration with the main associations, scientific and professional societies of reference for people with diabetes. During the event, a document of analysis and proposals for decision makers was presented, which starts from an important problem: the differences between Northern and Southern Italy in prevention, diagnosis and treatment.
Five urgent issues
There are five issues to urgently address in the fight against diabetes, identified by the think tank. «Counteracting the late diagnosis of childhood diabetes and overcoming territorial inequalities in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diabetes are the first two urgent issues to be resolved», dice Stefano A. Inglese, responsible for Cittadinanzattiva’s diabetes projects. «Digitizing and simplifying access to care, guaranteeing innovation and focusing on the centrality of the value of what is made available to patient citizens are three other possible areas of work».
Differences between North and South
The latest Istat data shows that in Italy there are more people with diabetes 3 and a half millionalmost 6% of the population, with an increasing trend in recent years. The prevalence increases with age and reaches 21% among those aged over 75. It is more frequent among men than among women (5.3% vs 4.1%), in the most socio-economically disadvantaged population groups, in the southern regions compared to the central and northern ones. These territorial differences are manifested by the prevalence indices, with the regions of the North-East standing at 4.7%, those of the North-West at 5.3%, then rising to 6.9% in the regions of the South, with a gap of 4.3 percentage points between the highest prevalence in Campania (7.8%) and the lowest in the autonomous province of Bolzano (3.5%).
Il think tank su Empowerment, prevention and access to innovation for people with diabetespromoted by Cittadinanzattiva, was presented in the Senate, in the Sala Caduti of Nassirya
«The situation differs from region to region, or rather from territory to territory. This lack of homogeneity puts people with diabetes in difficulty at the moment, creating truly unacceptable inequalities and inhomogeneities. Sand let’s look at the mortality rates, they are profoundly different, depending on the regions. Campania, Sicily and Calabria are at the top, with data almost triple compared to those recorded in Bolzano and Trento for men, and in Trento and Lombardy for women» explains Inglese. «Can we still accept today that if you get sick, with the same conditions and illness, residing in Bolzano and Trento means having a life expectancy of seven-eight years more than those residing in Campania or Sicily? This is not a problem from which we can retreat in homage to regional organizational autonomies, of the greater or lesser capacity to guarantee answers to citizens. There is a limit beyond which one cannot go and this limit has already been significantly exceeded.”
A plan objective
Among the recommendations presented by the think tank to the institutions is the central definition of a project Plan objective dedicated to health protection policies for people with diabetes, with particular attention to rebalancing territorial gaps. «We ask thisPlan objective which refers to national resources, managed by the Minister of Health, which are part of the National Health Fund, but are assigned to the regions following agreements and agreements and are bound to use for that particular objective. The priority is to invest in the southern regions which are very disadvantaged”, continues Inglese.
Prevention of Dka
Another priority of the document concerns the prevention of diabetic ketiacidosis, Dka, «a truly serious complication, regarding which we are in the presence of an unacceptable situation. The system’s ability to manage DKA has proven to be inadequate, we have the worst numbers in Europe at the moment, yet we have an extremely equipped and capable diabetes component, which we are envied abroad. It is not a problem of professional skills, therefore, but of organizational models that are not adequate for early diagnosis and crisis management when they occur.” In Italy, 40% of new diagnoses of type 1 diabetes are following a Dka, a particularly serious acute complication in pediatric agerarer in adults. The prevalence of Dka in Italy in pediatric age is one of the highest in the world, the figure recorded in Sweden is a third of that in Italy. Younger children and those residing in Southern Italy have a significantly higher risk of DKA and severe DKA than those in the Center and North of the country.
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