There are several facts, which point to the significance of this study. First and foremost, type II diabetes is one of the most widely spread health concerns around the globe, as more than 400 million people in different countries are diagnosed with diabetes mellitus (World Health Organization, 2016). Among them, more than 1 million people with diabetes dwell in the United Arab Emirates (International Diabetes Federation, 2015). Moreover, this topic requires an in-depth understanding because knowing the socioeconomic background of type II diabetes would be beneficial for decreasing the risks of the further expansion of the epidemic and improving the quality of life of those belonging to risk groups. Finally, this study might become a comprehensive educational initiative, which promotes preventive measures helpful for diminishing the risks of susceptibility to diabetes mellitus.
Literature Search Process
A thorough search using the Google Scholar database was the initial decision for locating scholarly articles for the literature review. As the focus is made on the correlation between socioeconomic status and susceptibility to type II diabetes, primary search requests were the following: socioeconomic status, causes of type II diabetes, socioeconomic status and diabetes mellitus, etc. During the search process, I faced the challenge of relevance and accuracy of sources. To cope with this problem, I decided to analyze only scholarly articles published in peer-reviewed journals. At the same time, I decided to review only recent papers in order to guarantee that only up-to-date information is mentioned in the literature review. That is why I have chosen the timeframe of five years – just like the frame of the research. Finally, I decided to avoid limiting the geographical scope of publishing. That said, articles investigating the correlation between socioeconomic status and type II diabetes in different countries and regions were analyzed.
Finding of Literature Review
During conducting a thorough literature review, the following conclusions were made:
- Socioeconomic status is a complex phenomenon, which incorporates a great variety of determinants such as age, race, gender, income, education, etc. (Rivera, Rosenbaum, & Rosela, 2015; Saydah & Lohner, 2010).
- The level of education and income are two factors, which are inversely associated with the risks of type II diabetes (Lee, Glynn, Peña, Paynter, & Conen, 2011). Moreover, they are among the most valued determinants of an individual’s socioeconomic status (Saydah, Imperatore, & Beckles, 2013).
- Low socioeconomic status leads to higher risks of diabetes mellitus due to poor metabolic control and lacking knowledge of preventive measures (Piper, Chalakalal, Sebastian, Warren-Findlow, & Thompson, 2015; Tao, Li, Zhu, Zhao, & Jiao, 2016).
- Understanding the correlation between socioeconomic status and predisposition to type II diabetes is critical for developing efficient preventative strategies for coping with this challenge (Piccolo, Pearce, Araujo, & McKinlay, 2014).
- Type II diabetes is a prevalent health concern among adult residents of the Gulf countries, especially those living in urban areas due to excessive industrialization, the prevalence of sedentary jobs, and giving preference to unhealthy food (Alhyas, McKay, & Majeed, 2012; Shalaby & Bauer, 2015).
Conclusions and Research
All of the conclusions mentioned above can be used for supporting the research, as the located articles offer valuable information for making up a comprehensive theoretical background of the proposed study. The fact that they are drawn based on scholarly articles would make the research persuasive and help to avoid the inclusion of irrelevant information.
References
Alhyas, L., McKay, A., & Majeed, A. (2012). Prevalence of type II diabetes in the State of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States in the Gulf: A systemic review. PLoS One, 7(8), 1-8. Web.
International Diabetes Federation. (2015). United Arab Emirates. Web.
Lee, T. C., Glynn, R. J., Peña, L. M., Paynter, N. P., & Conen, D. (2011). Socioeconomic status and incident type II diabetes mellitus: Data from the women’s health study. PLoS One, 6(12), 1-8. Web.
Piccolo, R. S., Pearce, N., Araujo, A. B., & McKinlay, J. B. (2014). The contribution of biogeographical ancestry and socioeconomic status to racial/ethnic disparities in type 2 diabetes mellitus: Results from the Boston Area Community Health Survey. Annals of Epidemiology, 24(9), 648-654.
Piper, C., Chalakalal, S., Sebastian, N., Warren-Findlow, J., & Thompson, M. (2015). Race, socioeconomic status, health-related quality of life, and self-care of type II diabetes mellitus among adults in North Carolina. Southern Medical Journal, 108(4), 212-216.
Rivera, L. A., Rosenbaum, M., & Rosela, L. C. (2015). The influence of socioeconomic status on future risk for developing Type 2 diabetes in the Canadian population between 2011 and 2022: Differential associations by sex. International Journal for Equity in Health, 14(1), 101-112.
Saydah, S. H., Imperatore, G., & Beckles, G. L. (2013). Socioeconomic status and mortality. Diabetes Care, 36(1), 49-55.
Saydah, S., & Lohner, K. (2010). Socioeconomic status and risk of diabetes-related mortality in the U.S. Public Health Reports, 125(3), 377-388.
Shalaby, S., & Bauer, B. E. (2015). Economic development and diabetes prevalence in MENA countries: Egypt and Saudi Arabia comparison. World Journal of Diabetes, 6(2), 304-311.
Tao, X., Li, J., Zhu, X., Zhao, B., & Jiao, S. (2016). Association between socioeconomic status and metabolic control and diabetes complications: A cross-sectional nationwide study in Chinese adults with type II diabetes mellitus. Cardiovascular Diabetology, 15(1), 61-71.
World Health Organization. (2016). Diabetes: Fact sheet. Web.