Diabetes, obesity more common in poor regions: Study

The place where you live can increase the risk of developing diabetes and obesity with the risks being more if you are living in socio-economically deprived regions, claims a new research.

And it holds true in spite of your own individual social status.

"Regional factors, such as the population's average income, unemployment or quality of living and environment can affect the health of all inhabitants, regardless of the educational level of the individual people," said Werner Maier from the Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen (HMGU) institute in Germany.

The researchers evaluated data from more than 33,000 people aged 30 years or more, who participated in the survey "German Health Update" in 2009 and 2010 conducted by Robert Koch Institute in Berlin.

They found that in the most deprived regions, the frequency of type 2 diabetes was 8.6 percent among those interviewed and that of obesity was 16.9 percent, compared to 5.8 and 13.7 percent, respectively, among those interviewed in regions that were only slightly deprived.

"Our results point out the significance of regional factors in association with common health problems such as diabetes mellitus and obesity in Germany," said Andreas Mielck from HMGU.

"Previous investigations in this area were frequently distorted by individual socio-economic status, or only used data from a particular region or from outside Germany," Mielck added.