Diabetes & Obesity 2025: Four Future Scenarios For the Twin Health Epidemics
Organisation: Institute for Alternative Futures
Publish Date: June 2006
Country: United States
Sector: Health
Method: Foresight
Theme: Food
Type: Report
Language: English
Tags: Health, Diabetes, Obesity, National Health Agenda, Prevention strategies, Behaviour modification, Technology, Medicine
The U.S. is on track to have 50 million Americans with diabetes in 2025, up from what are now estimated to be 20.8 million. This looming crisis of human suffering and extraordinary national expense can be avoided if we act now in a caring, coordinated, and comprehensive way, addressing diabetes and obesity as a twin epidemic. This report sets out four scenarios of how our choices related to diabetes and obesity could play out between now and 2025. The scenarios are designed to show how serious this twin epidemic could become if we stay on our current path, to illustrate the range of options available for averting a crisis, and to demonstrate how learning to meet the challenge of diabetes and obesity could play a major role in the evolution of our entire system of health care. The scenarios suggest that diabetes deserves to be elevated from a ‘stealth epidemic’ to a top priority in the national health agenda.
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