What are the news on diabetes and obesity?

Juana Carretero, president of the SEMI.

More than 270 internists will meet this Thursday and Friday, January 26 and 27, in Valladolid at the XVII Meeting of the Diabetes, Obesity and Nutrition Group of the Spanish Society of Internal Medicine (SEMI), where the main diagnostic and therapeutic novelties in these fields will be analyzed.

With the presence of experts from all over the country and representation of the group of patients and other medical-scientific societies, and under an inter and multidisciplinary approach, topics of scientific relevance such as the role of nutrition and exercise will be addressed in the frail hospitalized patient, ultrasound in the morphofunctional assessment in Internal Medicine, insulinization in special patient profiles, the past, future and present of the person with obesity or the anticoagulation of the patient with obesityamong many other relevant ones.

will also present the new algorithm for the comprehensive approach to hospital hyperglycemia, and there will be a lecture on the treatment of obesity in the elderly, as well as on main diagnostic and therapeutic novelties in the fields of diabetes, obesity and nutrition. Among other issues, the new ADA/EASD 2022 consensus will also be addressed, and the main initiatives and projects that the group has been working on over the last year (MIDIA registry or training and research activities -Customized Course-, as well as other algorithms such as the Type 2 Diabetes Approach SEMI 2023). The role of the internist, as a specialist with a global and comprehensive vision of the patient, is key in the management of people with diabetes and obesity to avoid their associated complications and comorbidities.

In addition to various workshops, including one on adapted physical exercise, there will be a meeting of researchers and a MFG workshop for internists, as well as a competition of clinical cases. The Serrano Ríos Award will also be awarded to the best research project 2023.

The inauguration of the meeting will take place by Juana Carretero, president of SEMI; Pedro Pablo Casado, coordinator of SEMI’s Diabetes, Obesity and Nutrition GT; José Manuel Barragán, president of the Castilian-Leonese-Cantabrian Society of Internal Medicine (Socalmi); Francisco Javier Escalada, president of the Spanish Society of Endocrinology and Nutrition (SEEN); Antonio Pérez, president of the Spanish Diabetes Society (SED), and Albert Lecubre, vice president of the Spanish Society for the Study of Obesity (Seedo). The inaugural conference, moderated by Carretero, will take place under the title ‘The path of the hero’.

Data of interest and prevalence of obesity and diabetes

Obesity is a “chronic disease”, as declared by most official bodies such as the WHO in 1997 or the EU in 2021. It is estimated that by 2023 the figures for prevalence in Spain will be 30 percent of the adult populationwith growth in all ages, especially worrying in children and adolescents with an expected growth of 1.9 percent per year, representing 2.43 percent of total health spending.

Regarding the prevalence of diabetes in Spain, it is estimated that 1 in 7 adults in Spain have diabetes and it is estimated that 13.8 percent of the Spanish population has Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (DM2), of which only 7.8 percent is diagnosed. Every year, 11.6 cases are diagnosed for every 100,000 inhabitants, which means 385,000 new cases of DM2 per year. With regard to Internal Medicine in particular, according to the registry, population profile and the average performance of the internist, it is estimated that more than 20 percent of patients who attend Internal Medicine have diabetes.

The information published in Redacción Médica contains affirmations, data and statements from official institutions and health professionals. However, if you have any questions related to your health, consult your corresponding health specialist.