BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of diabetes mellitus in the Roma population and compare it to the prevalence in the Caucasian population. METHODS: Using the words "Roma", "Gypsies", "Romani", and "traveler" in combination with "diabetes, "metabolic syndrome", "cardiovascular disease" and "health status" we searched the MEDLINE, Pubmed and Scopus databases for articles in English that focused on the prevalence of diabetes mellitus among Roma populations published until December 2017. RESULTS: Five studies met the inclusion criteria. The results of four of them suggested a higher prevalence of diabetes among Romani compared to Caucasians but none of them reached the standards regarding representative samples and number of cases for a conclusive result. CONCLUSION: Although some of the existing studies suggest a substantial prevalence of diabetes among Roma populations and even a higher risk of developing diabetes for Roma persons compared to Caucasians, the number of published literature on this topic remains very low and insufficient in design and number of participants to draw any conclusions.

Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Belegärzte am Alice Hospital 64287 Darmstadt Germany

Department of Internal Medicine 2nd Faculty of Medicine Charles University 150 00 Prague 5 Czech Republic

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Different prevalence of T2DM risk alleles in Roma population in comparison with the majority Czech population

Why don't segregated Roma do more for their health? A complex question