Diabetes prevalence, awareness and treatment and their correlates in older persons in urban and rural population in the Astana region, Kazakhstan

Highlights • There is very little reliable information on the prevalence, awareness, treatment and control of diabetes in Central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union. • This study found that a high overall prevalence of diabetes (12.5%); the prevalence was twice higher in the urban sample than in the rural area (16.3% vs. 8.6%). • Awareness, treatment and control of diabetes were also approximately twice higher in the urban vs. rural area. • The large urban–rural differences suggest a role of urbanized life style and access to health care.