Effect of age on the prevalence of diabetes mellitus in Spain between 2001 and 2012

To assess the effect of age on the increase in DM prevalence in Spain between 2001 and 2012. From the DM prevalence data of the National Health Surveys performed in Spain in 2001, 2006, and 2012 and age distribution of the population, adjusted prevalence rates by age for each year were calculated by the direct method, taking the 2006 population as the reference one. Crude and adjusted percentage increases were also calculated for the whole period and for the 2001-2006 and 2006-2012 sub-periods. 12.5% of the crude DM prevalence increase is attributable to the population aging during the whole period. Although the trends are different in the two sub-periods, adjusted prevalence rates also show an increasing trend. Aside from population aging, there exist other factors responsible for the increase in diabetes prevalence rates in Spain in 2001-2012 that should be known.