Current issue of the Journal of Health Monitoring on Diabetes Surveillance

The editorial by Scheidt-Nave et al. entitled “Diabetes surveillance – Laying the groundwork for non-communicable disease surveillance in Germany” describes the structure of diabetes surveillance and the extension to non-communicable disease (NCD) surveillance. NCD surveillance is an indispensable data and information basis for evidence-based health and risk communication as well as for the planning and monitoring of measures for the prevention and health care of diabetes and other important NCDs.

The first Focus by Heidemann et al. entitled “Healthcare and health situation of adults with type 2 diabetes in Germany: The study GEDA 2021/2022-Diabetes” provides a comprehensive insight into the health and health care situation of people aged 45 and over with type 2 diabetes based on data during and towards the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. Results on general, mental and social health as well as medication, self-monitoring and medical examinations are presented.

The second Focus by Buchmann et al. entitled “Type 2 diabetes among people with selected citizenships in Germany: risk, healthcare, complications” examines differences in selected diabetes indicators according to migration-related characteristics, such as self-assessed German language skills and experiences of discrimination in everyday life or in the health and care sector, based on the multilingual survey GEDA Focus (2021/2022) of people with Italian, Croatian, Polish, Syrian or Turkish nationality.

The Fact sheet by Tuncer et al. entitled “Diabetes-related amputations in Germany: analysis of time trend from 2015 to 2022 and differences by area-level socioeconomic deprivation” shows the development over time of diabetes-related amputations, which represent a serious long-term complication of diabetes that has not been adequately treated and are differentiated according to amputation below or above the ankle joint. The article is based on data from the Diagnosis Related Groups Statistics (DRG Statistic) of the Federal Statistical Office, which were linked to the German Index of Socioeconomic Deprivation (GISD) to take regional socioeconomic deprivation into account.

The Fact sheet by Reitzle et al. entitled “Prevalence of gestational diabetes mellitus in Germany: Temporal trend and differences by regional socioeconomic deprivation” focuses on the temporal development of the prevalence of gestational diabetes, which usually regresses after pregnancy but is a risk factor for birth complications and type 2 diabetes in later life. The article is based on a secondary usage of data from inpatient quality assurance for obstetrics from 2013 to 2021 and a linkage at regional level with the GISD.