Diabetes and climate change

BACKGROUND: Diabetes mellitus, a looming crisis, is approaching worldwide epidemic proportions. In 2018, 34.2 million Americans, or 10.5% of the population had diabetes. Climate change, and in particular rising global temperatures, may exacerbate various health issues, including diabetes and ultimately lead to increased mortality. OBJECTIVES: To identify the impact of climate change on diabetes. METHODS: A systematic literature review of Pubmed (MEDLINE database of references and abstracts on life sciences and biomedical topics from the USA National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health) and Scopus (Elsevier’s abstract and citation database) with the following terms: ‘diabetes’ [AND] ‘climate change’. RESULTS: The following risk factors for diabetes due to climate change were identified and discussed: extreme temperatures (heat), the risk of hospitalization, shortage of medical and food supplies and urbanization. CONCLUSIONS: Diabetes and climate change are interconnected. Extreme weather events and rising temperatures may increase morbidity and mortality in patients living with diabetes, especially in those with cardiovascular complications. Failure to mitigate climate change and the diabetes epidemic threatens the lives of many people in the U.S. and beyond.