Drug sales data and prevalence of diabetes in France.

The importance of diabetes in France was estimated on the basis of drug sales data from 1976 to 1982. In 1982, 1.1% of the French population was taking oral hypoglycaemic agents daily, and 0.2%, insulin. These results are compared with the prevalence of diabetes (1.9%) estimated in a 1976 French epidemiologic study carried out on a random sample of practitioners, and other European estimates. The particularly high consumption of oral antidiabetic agents in France is then addressed, in relation to diagnosis and prescription habits.