Estilo de vida y adherencia al tratamiento de la población canaria con diabetes mellitus tipo 2

background: the canary islands population experiences the highest type 2 diabetes (dm2) mortality in spain. we studied lifestyle, unknown dm2 and treatment adherence in diabetics of these islands. methods: cross-sectional study of 6729 subjects from the general population (age 18-75) that participate in the cohort study "cdc of the canary islands". we found out their medical problems, diet, physical activity, medications, smoking, etc. results: prevalence of dm2 was 12% in men and 10% in women (p=0.005). the disease was unknown in 22% of men and 9% of women (p < 0.001). considering unknown dm2, lack of treatment and lack of adherence, 48% of men and 28% of women did not follow a regular treatment. diabetics' men prevalences of smoking (28%; ci95%=23-33) and sedentariness (62%; ci95%=56-68) were similar to non diabetic men, but obesity was more frequent in diabetics (45 versus 25%; p < 0.001). diabetics women showed a higher obesity (54 versus 27%; p < 0.001) and a lower smoking prevalence (11 versus 22%; p < 0,001) than non diabetics, but they presented a similar sedentariness (75%; ci95%=70-79). in both sexes, energy intake was lower in diabetics (p < 0.001), but 93% of them (ci95%=91-95) showed a high consumption of calories from saturated fat and 69% (ci95%=65-72) presented metabolic syndrome. conclusions: the canarian diabetics are a sedentary and obese population that show a high consumption of saturated fats and high prevalence of metabolic syndrome. the proportion of them following regular treatment is low, specially in diabetic men that, in addition, still smoke.