Prevalence of Diabetes Mellitus among Roma Populations—A Systematic Review

Marisa A. Nunes, Kristýna Kučerová, Ondřej Lukáč, Milan Kvapil and Jan Brož
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Marisa A. Nunes: Department of Internal Medicine, Second Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, 150 00 Prague 5, Czech Republic
Kristýna Kučerová: Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Belegärzte am Alice-Hospital, 64287 Darmstadt, Germany
Ondřej Lukáč: Department of Internal Medicine, Second Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, 150 00 Prague 5, Czech Republic
Milan Kvapil: Department of Internal Medicine, Second Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, 150 00 Prague 5, Czech Republic
Jan Brož: Department of Internal Medicine, Second Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, 150 00 Prague 5, Czech Republic

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 11, 1-11

Abstract: Background: The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of diabetes mellitus in the Roma population and compare it to the prevalence in the Caucasian population. Methods: Using the words “Roma”, “Gypsies”, “Romani”, and ”traveler” in combination with “diabetes, “metabolic syndrome”, “cardiovascular disease” and “health status” we searched the MEDLINE, Pubmed and Scopus databases for articles in English that focused on the prevalence of diabetes mellitus among Roma populations published until December 2017. Results: Five studies met the inclusion criteria. The results of four of them suggested a higher prevalence of diabetes among Romani compared to Caucasians but none of them reached the standards regarding representative samples and number of cases for a conclusive result. Conclusion: Although some of the existing studies suggest a substantial prevalence of diabetes among Roma populations and even a higher risk of developing diabetes for Roma persons compared to Caucasians, the number of published literature on this topic remains very low and insufficient in design and number of participants to draw any conclusions.

Keywords: diabetes mellitus; prevalence; Romani; Roma ethnic; gypsy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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