Overweight people are more likely to develop diabetes with low incomes

Overweight people with a low income are more likely to have type 2 diabetes than overweight people who earn more, according to Statistics Netherlands (CBS) based on an analysis with figures from the Health Survey. Type 2 diabetes is particularly common among overweight people who have to live a long-term life on a low income.

By 2021, half of adults were overweight. That same year, 5 percent of adults had type 2 diabetes. This disease is more common in overweight people than in non-overweight peers. In the period from 2018 to 2021, obesity was more common among people with a low income than among adults with a higher salary. Of the adults who had to live on little money for a long time (more than 4 years in a row) even a majority were overweight.

This group is also the most common type 2 diabetes. 11 percent of long-term low-income and moderately overweight people had the condition, with nearly a quarter of those obese (23 percent). Moderately overweight adults have a BMI between 25 and 30, obese people have a BMI over 30.

In this CBS analysis, a low income refers to an income below the low-income threshold. In 2020, that limit was €1100 for singles, €1550 for a couple and €2110 for a family with two minor children.

According to the Diabetes Fund, being overweight and having too much belly fat are seen as important causes of type 2 diabetes, as are old age, unhealthy diet, too little exercise and smoking. Heredity can also play a role. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which the body itself destroys the cells that make insulin.

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