Demographics and risk factors
The share of individuals with diabetes grows with age. As a matter of fact, a steep increase can be observed in Italy for the age groups 65-74 years and 75 years and older, with a prevalence of 15.7 and 20.8 percent, respectively. Considering the general Italian population, females are slightly less affected by this disease in terms of prevalence, especially when considering women aged less than 75 years. On the other hand, when considering the obese population, the prevalence of diabetes among obese females in Italy has reached 17.3 percent as of 2020, while for obese male individuals the share of diabetics was around 12.5 percent. When considering people with a physically inactive lifestyle, the prevalence of diabetes among male individuals with a sedentary lifestyle was slightly higher than among females, with 11.2 percent of sedentary males diagnosed with diabetes.Regional differences
Southern regions in Italy have the highest prevalence of diabetes, reaching almost eight percent. This figure explains the higher per capita expenditure on antidiabetic drugs in southern Italian regions and islands, which reached almost 23 euros per capita in 2021. Conversely, between 2020 and 2021, the region of Aosta Valley was the one with the highest share of diabetics. Diabetes type 2 may not be diagnosed until many years after it begins, leading to serious complications. In 2018 the hospitalization rate for untreated diabetes in Italy was not homogeneous across the country, with the Autonomous Province of Bolzano having almost 30 hospitalizations per 100 thousand people, while the same figure was ten times lower in Aosta Valley.
