Affiliations 

  • 1 School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy, Faculty of Health, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW 2308, Australia ; UKM Medical Molecular Biology Institute (UMBI), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 2 Clinical Research Design, IT and Statistical Support (CReDITSS) Unit, Hunter Medical Research Institute, Newcastle, NSW 2305, Australia ; Centre for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Medicine and Public Health, Faculty of Health, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW 2305, Australia
  • 3 School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy, Faculty of Health, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW 2308, Australia ; Hunter Area Pathology Service, John Hunter Hospital, Newcastle, NSW 2305, Australia
Int J Endocrinol, 2014;2014:593982.
PMID: 24744783 DOI: 10.1155/2014/593982

Abstract

The prevalence of Type 2 diabetes is rising rapidly in both developed and developing countries. Asia is developing as the epicentre of the escalating pandemic, reflecting rapid transitions in demography, migration, diet, and lifestyle patterns. The effective management of Type 2 diabetes in Asia may be complicated by differences in prevalence, risk factor profiles, genetic risk allele frequencies, and gene-environment interactions between different Asian countries, and between Asian and other continental populations. To reduce the worldwide burden of T2D, it will be important to understand the architecture of T2D susceptibility both within and between populations. This review will provide an overview of known genetic and nongenetic risk factors for T2D, placing the results from Asian studies in the context of broader global research. Given recent evidence from large-scale genetic studies of T2D, we place special emphasis on emerging knowledge about the genetic architecture of T2D and the potential contribution of genetic effects to population differences in risk.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.