The Prevalence of Diabetes in the Rural and Urban Polynesian Population of Western Samoa

Rural-urban comparisons of diabetes prevalence were made in the Polynesian population of Western Samoa. The prevalence of diabetes in the urban population was almost three times that in the rural (10.1% versus 3.6%). While the urban male and female subjects were significantly more obese than their rural counterparts, the difference in prevalence rate could not be wholly explained on this basis. Diabetes prevalence was still approximately double in urban subjects when we compared the rural and urban populations after removing the differences in obesity and age. The results suggest that, apart from age and obesity, other factors, e.g., differences in diet, physical activity, or stress (or a combination of these), may participate in the rural to urban difference in diabetes prevalence.

[1]  Classification and Diagnosis of Diabetes Mellitus and Other Categories of Glucose Intolerance , 1979, Diabetes.

[2]  P. Zimmet.  Epidemiology of Diabetes and its Macrovascular Manifestations in Pacific Populations: The Medical Effects of Social Progress , 1979, Diabetes Care.

[3]  P. Zimmet.  Bimodality of Fasting and Two-hour Glucose Tolerance Distributions in a Micronesian Population , 1978, Diabetes.

[4]  K. M. West.  Epidemiology of diabetes and its vascular lesions , 1978 .

[5]  C. Salmond,et al.  The relationships of diabetes, blood lipids, and uric acid levels in Polynesians. , 1978, Advances in metabolic disorders.

[6]  P. Zimmet,et al.  Diabetes Mellitus in an Urbanized, Isolated Polynesian Population: The Funafuti Survey , 1977, Diabetes.

[7]  I. Prior,et al.  The Tokelau Island migrant study: prevalence of various conditions before migration. , 1976, International journal of epidemiology.

[8]  P. Bennett,et al.  Epidemiologic studies of diabetes in the Pima Indians. , 1976, Recent progress in hormone research.

[9]  D. Labarthe,et al.  Epidemiologic Studies of Serum Glucose Levels among Micronesians , 1973, Diabetes.

[10]  P. Bennett,et al.  Diabetes in the Pima Indians: Evidence of Bimodality in Glucose Tolerance Distributions , 1971, Diabetes.

[11]  T. Welborn,et al.  DIABETES DETECTED BY BLOOD‐SUGAR MEASUREMENT AFTER A GLUCOSE LOAD: REPORT FROM THE BUSSELTON SURVEY, 1966 , 1968, The Medical journal of Australia.

[12]  J. Cassidy.  Diabetes in Fiji. , 1967, The New Zealand medical journal.

[13]  I. Prior,et al.  The epidemiology of diabetes in Polynesians and Europeans in New Zealand and the Pacific. , 1966, The New Zealand medical journal.

[14]  F. Epstein,et al.  Carbohydrate Tolerance and Diabetes in a Total Community, Tecumseh, Michigan: 1. Effects of Age, Sex, and Test Conditions on One-hour Glucose Tolerance in Adults , 1965, Diabetes.

[15]  W. Haenszel,et al.  Statistical aspects of the analysis of data from retrospective studies of disease. , 1959, Journal of the National Cancer Institute.