Prevalence refers to the number of people currently diagnosed with diabetes.
Quality and Outcomes Framework
The Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) was introduced in 2004 and provides financial incentives to general practices for the provision of high quality care. Participation by practices in the QOF is voluntary but most practices choose to participate.
As part of QOF, general practices will register the number of people with diabetes and therefore prevalence figures are available. These figures are published annually. When prevalence figures are applied to current populations an estimate of the number of people with diabetes can be calculated.
UK average = 4.6 per cent
Therefore the known diagnosed population is now 3 million people.
From 2008-09 onwards, QOF diabetes prevalence for England has been calculated against an age-specific denominator (an estimate of the number of people aged (17+) registered on practice lists). Therefore, comparing this prevalence with previous years or comparing across nations will not give a true estimate of change.
The UK prevalence reported here has been calculated using the total sum of list sizes for all practices, including all ages, as a denominator.
You can find further information on the QOF data in the four nations under 'Related information'.
