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OBJECTIVE—To report the age- and sex-specific prevalence of diabetes and impaired glucose regulation (IGR) according to revised World Health Organization criteria for diabetes in Asian populations. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—We performed 11 studies of 4 countries, comprising 24,335 subjects (10,851 men and 13,484 women) aged 30–89 years who attended the 2-h oral glucose tolerance test and met the inclusion criteria for data analysis. RESULTS—The prevalence of diabetes increased with age and reached the peak at 70–89 years of age in Chinese and Japanese subjects but peaked at 60–69 years of age followed by a decline at the 70 years of age in Indian subjects. At 30–79 years of age, the 10-year age-specific prevalence of diabetes was higher in Indian than in Chinese and Japanese subjects. Indian subjects also had a higher prevalence of IGR in the younger age-groups (30–49 years) compared with that for Chinese and Japanese subjects. Impaired glucose tolerance was more prevalent than impaired fasting glycemia in all Asian populations studied for all age-groups. CONCLUSIONS—Indians had the highest prevalence of diabetes among Asian countries. The age at which the peak prevalence of diabetes was reached was ∼10 years younger in Indian compared with Chinese and Japanese subjects. Diabetes and IGR will be underestimated in Asians based on the fasting glucose testing alone.

This study hypothesized that depressive experiences of the elderly could be aggravated by universal factors such as low social status, poor health, financial strain, and unhealthy lifestyle, as well as by factors specific to an indigenous socio-cultural environment (stressful family dynamics) of a given population. Three hundred and fifty Chinese subjects aged 65 or older were interviewed either at their homes or in the geriatric out-patient clinic of Beijing Hospital. Hierarchical logistic regression was used to examine significant predictors of depression. Results showed that certain social status, poor physical health, financial strain, unhealthy lifestyle, and stressful family situation explained 47 percent of the variance in depression. However, stressful family situation alone explained 13 percent of the variance in depression, indicating that family factors were important predictors of depression for Chinese elderly. Furthermore, this study demonstrated for the first time that verbal abuse within Chinese families is a significant correlate of depression among the elderly. Cultural implications of these findings are discussed.