Diabetes mellitus: socio-ethical aspects and issues

The article describes the directions and reasons for research in diabetes mellitus. Despite great advances in diagnosing and treating this endocrine disorder, the number of patients diagnosed with diabetes mellitus is increasing every year. This has become a matter of great concern not only for many countries, medical and patient organizations and associations, but also for the entire world community, encompassing non-medical researchers. Diabetes mellitus has significant social implications, thus causing great costs to the economy in many countries. Therefore, more money is invested now in prevention of diabetes through diabetes-screening programs which include medical examinations and identifying patients who do not know they have it. Interdisciplinary studies in the fields of medicine, bioethics, law, sociology, etc. focus on the doctor-patient relationships and diabetes mellitus. The article provides examples of a range of approaches to the doctor-patient relationships and analyzes their positive and negative aspects. In addition to this, the article reviews recent projects that evaluate personalized prevention of diabetes mellitus and describes the risk factors for developing diabetes (except hereditary factors).

diabetes mellitus, socially significant disease, doctor-patient relationship, personalized prevention