Prevalence of type 2 diabetes in northern populations of Siberia.

In the first part of the study the prevalence and incidence of diagnosed Type 2 diabetes among adult rural populations of southern, central and northern areas of the Krasnoyarsk region of Siberia is compared. The six-year mean incidence of diabetes in the southern area was 0.86 per 1000 (95% CI: 0.66-1.06), in the central area this incidence was 0.79 (0.57-1.01). In contrast, in the northern area the mean Type 2 incidence among indigenous population was 0.16 per 1000 (0-0.43) and among aliens it was 0.38 (0.22-0.54). The age-standardised Type 2 diabetes prevalence in the population of southern and central areas were 10.23 (9.55-10.-92) and 10.77 (9.99-11.55), respectively. In the northern area among aliens it was 8.98 (8.18-9.78) and among indigenous peoples only 2.54 per 1000 (1.46-3.62). The second part of this study consists of a population based survey to determine the prevalence rate of Type 2 diabetes among 596 Evenks and 306 alien inhabitants in Evenkia (82% eligible participants of Baikit district). No cases of glucose intolerance were found among Evenks in this study and one case of Type 2 diabetes was confirmed among aliens (prevalence rate 3.27 per 1000). These data indicate that Type 2 diabetes is still rare among northern indigenous populations of Siberia and that diabetes in northern alien populations is less prevalent than among peoples of central and southern areas of Siberia.