Native women and Native men in Saskatchewan suffer from the highest rates of diabetes in the province, according to a study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

The incidence of Type 2 diabetes was more than four times higher for Native women than for non-Native women. The incidence among Native men was more than 2.5 times higher than that of non-Native men.

According to the study, diabetes has been on the rise among Native people since 1980. By 2005, nearly 50 percent of Native women over the age of 60 and more than 40 percent of Native men developed the disease.

The study also showed that Native women were more likely to develop diabetes at a younger age than Native men and non-Natives. "Among First Nations people, the prevalence of diabetes was almost twice as high among women as it was among men in the early 1980s, and a large absolute difference has persisted," researchers wrote.

Get the Story:
Diabetes on rise in young aboriginal women (CBC 1/18)
Manitoba diabetic refused insulin for living on reserve (The Saskatoon StarPhoenix 1/18)

Get the Study:
Epidemiology of diabetes mellitus among First Nations and non-First Nations adults (Canadian Medical Association Journal January 18, 2010)