In contrast to many prevalence studies universally showing an increase of type 2 diabetes with age, data on differences in the incidence of type 2 diabetes in Europe are sparse. We observed a linear increase in diabetes risk by age across the 8 countries included in InterAct, with an overall 56% increase in risk for a decade of age (men 45%, women 64%). This trend, in the context of an ageing European population, will lead to a rise in the incidence of diabetes if effective prevention measures are not implemented now. We also found a consistent male excess in diabetes incidence across all countries, with an overall 50% higher risk in men, compared to women. Differences in waist circumference accounted for some of the heterogeneity in this association between countries. The previous literature on sex differences in incident diabetes largely supports this finding, with most [24;26;29-31], but not all studies [27] reporting a male excess in risk. Future InterAct work will identify factors that underlie and contribute to differences in diabetes incidence by sex and age.
