Mapping the burden of diabetes in five small countries in Europe and setting the agenda for health policy and strategic action

Cuschieri, Sarah; Pallari, Elena; Terzić, Nataša; Alkerwi, Ala’a; Sigurðardóttir, Árún K

doi:10.1186/s12961-020-00665-y

Cited by 10 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 25 publications

(42 reference statements)

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“…2 Malta has the worse metabolic profile out of the three islands, with 34.1% of the population obese (2014–16) and 10.4% with type 2 diabetes (2014–16) which is similar to Cyprus. 3 The obesity rate in Cyprus was reported at 27.8% (2021), while in Iceland reported at 26.6% (2017). 3 , 4…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A year of Covid-19: experiences and lessons learnt by small European island states—Cyprus, Iceland and Malta

Cuschieri

Pallari

Hatziyianni

et al. 2022

European Journal of Public Health

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Background COVID-19 became a global pandemic within weeks, as every country including small states and islands experienced a surge in cases. Small islands are known to face several challenges in the quest to curb the viral spread, but with the absence of land boarders and small population size, these factors should have played to their advantage to minimize the spread. The aim of this article was to compare and contrast the COVID-19 situation, restrictions, preparedness, management and the healthcare systems between the small population island states of Cyprus, Iceland and Malta. Methods Data were obtained from Ministry of Health websites and COVID dashboards of the three respective Island states in Europe. Comparisons were made between the reported cases, deaths, excess deaths, years of life lost, swabbing rates, restrictive measures, vaccination roll-out and healthcare system structures. Results Cyprus and Malta contained the COVID-19 spread better than Iceland during the first wave. However, a significantly higher viral spread and mortality rates were observed in Malta during the second waves. Similar healthcare preparedness and services, restrictions and relaxation measures were implemented across the three islands with some exceptions. Covid-19 vaccination has initiated across all Islands with Malta leading the vaccination roll-out. Conclusion The small population size and island status proved to be an asset during the first wave of COVID-19, but different governance approaches led to a different COVID-19 outcomes, including high mortality rates during the transition phases and the subsequent waves.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“… 3 The obesity rate in Cyprus was reported at 27.8% (2021), while in Iceland reported at 26.6% (2017). 3 , 4…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A year of Covid-19: experiences and lessons learnt by small European island states—Cyprus, Iceland and Malta

Cuschieri

Pallari

Hatziyianni

et al. 2022

European Journal of Public Health

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“…The most common among these is research output, which is what we have used for this study. Due to the heterogeneous nature, it is important to focus on particular region(s) and/or disease(s), such as medical research in Africa (30), India (29) or Palestine (34), or specific chronic respiratory diseases in Europe (35), diabetes in five small countries in Europe (36), neglected tropical diseases in Brazil (37) or cancer research in 29 countries (24) or just in China (25). At the global level, Yegros-Yegros et al (38) use research output indexed by MEDLINE and WHO data from the Global Burden of Disease in 2010 to explore the relationships between research effort and health needs for 134 diseases.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How does academia respond to the burden of infectious and parasitic disease?

Zhao¹,

Wang²,

Zhang³

2021

Preprint

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Background: Academic research is one of the main avenues through which humans can fight the threat of infectious diseases. However, there has been concerns regarding whether academic system has provided sufficient efforts to fight infectious diseases we potentially face. Answering these questions could contribute to evidence-based recommendations for setting research priorities and third-mission policies. Methods: With a focus on one of the most common categories of communicable diseases, infectious and parasitic diseases (IPDs), we searched Web of Science for articles and reviews relevant to IPDs published during 2000-2019 and acquired WHO data of disease burden in corresponding years. The academic response patterns were explored by IPD subcategory, and by human development level (an index established by the UN). We in particular conduct the analysis to gain insight on the dynamic relationship between disease burden and research effort on IPD, scientific efforts contributed by countries with different development levels, and the variation trends in international joint efforts. Results: The greatest burden of IPD disease is clustered in the developing regions of Africa, but has received academic response from both developed and developing countries. Highly developed countries dominate the ranks of academic research in this area, yet there is also a clear increase of research efforts from the countries most affected, despite their low human development scale. In fact, the overall analysis reveals an improved capability of addressing local problems from African regions. In terms of international collaboration, highly developed countries, such as the US and UK, have commonly collaborated with needy regions, whereas prolific but developing nations, like China, have not. Conclusions: From a global perspective, academia has positively responded to health need caused by IPD. Although the relevant research output is primarily contributed by the highly developed countries, the concentrated efforts from the undeveloped regions to ease their local burdens can be clearly observed. Our findings also indicate the tendency on focusing more on local health needs for both developed and undeveloped regions. The insights revealed in this study should benefit a more informed and systemic plan of research priorities.

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“…34⋅1 % and 22⋅5 v . 24⋅3 %, respectively) ( 19 , 20 ) . However, the prevalence of diabetes and hypertension was less, reflecting the age range of our cohort (4⋅2 v. 10⋅4 % and 7⋅8 v .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Characterisation of body size phenotypes in a middle-aged Maltese population

2021

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Obesity is increasingly recognised as being a heterogeneous disease. Some obese individuals may present a metabolically healthy profile (metabolically healthy obese (MHO)), while some normal weight individuals exhibit an adverse cardiometabolic phenotype (metabolically unhealthy normal weight individuals (MUHNW)). The objectives of the present study were to examine the prevalence and associated characteristics of the different body composition phenotypes within a Maltese cohort. This was a cross-sectional analysis involving 521 individuals aged 41 ± 5 years. The metabolically unhealthy state was defined as the presence of ≥2 metabolic syndrome components (NCEP-ATPIII parameters), while individuals with ≤1 cardiometabolic abnormalities were classified as metabolically healthy. Overall, 70 % of the studied population was overweight or obese and 30⋅7 % had ≥2 cardiometabolic abnormalities. The prevalence of MHO and MUHNW was 10⋅7 and 2⋅1 %, respectively. Individuals with the healthy phenotype were more likely to consume alcohol, participate in regular physical activity and less likely to be smokers. While the MHO phenotype had similar values for waist, hip and neck circumferences, waist–hip ratio and insulin resistance when compared with MUHNW individuals, there was a lower proportion of MHO subjects having a high fasting plasma glucose, hypertriglyceridaemia or low HDL-C when compared with the unhealthy lean individuals. A high prevalence of the metabolically unhealthy phenotype was observed in this relatively young population which may result in significant future cardiovascular disease burden if timely assessment and management of modifiable risk factors are not implemented. Furthermore, the present study suggests that the MHO phenotype is not totally benign as previously thought.

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Mapping the burden of diabetes in five small countries in Europe and setting the agenda for health policy and strategic action

Cited by 10 publications

References 25 publications

A year of Covid-19: experiences and lessons learnt by small European island states—Cyprus, Iceland and Malta

A year of Covid-19: experiences and lessons learnt by small European island states—Cyprus, Iceland and Malta

How does academia respond to the burden of infectious and parasitic disease?

Characterisation of body size phenotypes in a middle-aged Maltese population

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