Pioneering study challenges scientific stance on urban diabetes

Social, cultural and economic factors play a much bigger role in the spread of urban diabetes than previously thought, according to new research commissioned by the pioneering Cities Changing Diabetes (CCD) programme

Published today ahead of the inaugural CCD summit in Copenhagen, the study findings show that diabetes vulnerability in cities can be linked to everything from financial and geographical constraints, to traditional perceptions of health and body size - challenging current scientific understanding of the problem.

"By largely focusing on biomedical risk factors for diabetes, traditional research has not adequately accounted for the impact of social and cultural drivers of disease," explains David Napier, professor of Medical Anthropology at CCD programme partner University College London (UCL). "Our pioneering research will enable cities worldwide to help populations adapt to lifestyles that make them less vulnerable to diabetes."