The document from the Directorate-General for Health (DGS), released on World Diabetes Day, shows that diabetes mortailty rates have been decreasing, and that 2015 was the year that the lowest standardised mortality rate, with 19.4 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants.

Diabetes kills between 2,200 and 2,500 women a year and about 1,600 to 1,900 men, which means it accounts for more than 4% of female deaths and 3% of male deaths.

The disease affects more than 13% of the Portuguese population and it is estimated that 44% of people with diabetes have yet to be diagnosed.

Health centres carry out assessments of the risk of developing diabetes, but the National Programme for the disease proposes an increase in the number of new early diagnoses.

From 2015 to 2016, the number of risk assessments for developing diabetes declined from 621,000 to less than 619,000.

By 2020, the DGS aims to increase the number of new diagnoses by 30,through early diagnosis, reduce premature mortality from diabetes by 5%, and reduce the development of diabetes in 30,000 at-risk users.

In regional terms, diabetes is more prevalent in the Alentejo region and in the Autonomous Region of the Azores, with the Algarve being the region with the lowest prevalence.