Dear Editor of the Globe and Mail:

The Globe and Mail story on the increasing prevalence of diabetes among
Ontarians is indeed a wake-up call (Diabetes cases leap by a third, study
indicates, August 15).  Andre Picard mentions "Diabetes is also a disease of
poverty."  Readers might benefit from knowing that the report states that the
prevalence rate of diabetes is almost 400% greater among low income women as
that seen among high income women.  Similarly, the rate for low income males is
40% higher, and among lower middle income men 50% higher than well-off men ,
still significant figures.  Diabetes therefore appears --like heart disease --
to be an affliction of the poor and insecure.  Will governments -- and
institutions like the Diabetes Association and the Heart and Stroke Foundation
-- raise the issue of  the increasing incidence of poverty in addtion to the
usual exhorations about changing lifestyles as means of preventing these
diseases?


Dennis Raphael, PhD
Associate Professor and Undergraduate Program Director
School of Health Policy and Management
Atkinson Faculty of Liberal and Professional Studies
York University
4700 Keele Street
Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3
tel: 416-736-2100, ext. 22134
fax: 416-736-5227
email: [log in to unmask]

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