Examining the relationship between diabetes prevalence and economic development
https://doi.org/10.47282/economica/2025/16/3-4/15786
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Copyright (c) 2025 Kaibás András, Bíró Klára, Klára Boruzs
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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Abstract
The increasing prevalence of diabetes has become one of the most important and challenging health issues in the world. The increase in the prevalence of diabetes in most regions of the world is paralleled by rapid economic development. We aim to investigate the relationship between increasing economic growth and diabetes prevalence. We are seeking answers whether the Kuznets hypothesis is true or not, such as economic growth is a cure for certain health problems, in this case diabetes. Our analysis was based on aggregated data from the European Health for All database (HFA-DB). We fitted second-order curves and calculated coefficients of determination. In all the countries diabetes prevalence has increased over the analyzed period, in line with the increase in GDP per capita. The coefficient of determination ranged between R2=0.95 and 0.81. Our analysis shows a correlation between GDP and diabetes prevalence. Portugal and the Czech Republic had significantly higher prevalence of diabetes compared to countries with similar economic development, while Turkmenistan, Greece, Kazakhstan and Iceland had significantly lower prevalence. Close attention should be paid to countries that have experienced a decline in diabetes prevalence to avoid the increasing economic burden. Research is needed to investigate the effects and circumstances led to lower diabetes prevalence despite high GDP per capita, so the increase in economic welfare is not associated with an increased prevalence of diabetes.
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