Halle (dpa/sa) – The number of hospital treatments for diabetes has fallen significantly in Saxony-Anhalt in recent years. The proportion of patients with the main diagnosis of diabetes mellitus has fallen by almost a quarter since 2010, from 411 to 311 affected people per 100,000 inhabitants in 2020, the State Statistical Office announced on Friday. According to statistics, almost 6,800 people from Saxony-Anhalt were treated with this diagnosis in German hospitals in 2020. This corresponded to 1.3 percent of all treatments in the hospital.
In a nationwide comparison, the value for Saxony-Anhalt is still quite high despite the decline. Only in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania was a higher value of 347 determined. Across Germany, 201 people per 100,000 inhabitants were hospitalized because of this diagnosis.
Medicine distinguishes between two main types of diabetes: type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes. Lifestyle and eating habits are the main causes of type 2 diabetes. A cure is not possible, but preventive countermeasures can be taken by avoiding being overweight and exercising more. In the hospital diagnosis statistics, type 2 diabetes dominated with around 83 percent compared to type 1 diabetes.