First Nations and diabetes in Canada
Open-knowledge reference entry
There are high rates of diabetes in First Nations people in Canada compared to the general Canadian population. Statistics from 2011 showed that 17.2% of First Nations people living on reserves had type 2 diabetes.
Contributing factors to the high prevalence of type 2 diabetes between First Nations and the general population include a combination of environmental (lifestyle, diet, poverty), and genetic and biological factors (e.g. thrifty genotype hypothesis, thrifty phenotype). To what extent each factor plays a role is not clear.
Diabetes mellitus (Type 2)
Rates of obesity and diabetes mellitus, commonly referred to as type 2 diabetes (T2D), in First Nations communities was non-existent 20 years ago, but increased steeply. Age-standardized rates show 17.2% prevalence of T2D among First Nations individuals living on reserves, compared to 5.0% in the non-Aboriginal population;
Statistics indicate that the T2D prevalence rate in First Nations people is 3 to 5 times higher than the general Canadian population. As well as having a higher rates of T2D than the general population, there are also differences in the disease pattern in First Nations T2D patients compared to the general population, especially in terms of age of onset and gestational diabetes.
Diabetes in youth
Diabetes in First Nations has increasingly become a disease of the younger population, experiencing a high burden of diabetes-related complications and co-morbidity. In the general population, T2D is an old-age associated disease, however new diabetes cases peaked in First Nations people between ages 40–49 compared with a non-First Nations peak of age 70+.
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