Global aging and rising body weight will more than double the number of people with diabetes by 2050, researchers predicted, putting millions more people at risk of a variety of dangerous disorders.

More than 1.3 billion people worldwide will have diabetes at the half-century mark, up from 529 million in 2021, according to estimates released last week by the Lancet medical journal. The vast majority of patients will have type 2 diabetes, the form of the disease that's often linked to being overweight.

A loss of the body's ability to control blood sugar levels, diabetes affects one in 10 adults globally and caused 6.7 million deaths in 2021, the International Diabetes Federation estimates. The disease has unequal impacts, with fewer than 10% of people affected in low and middle-income countries receiving proper care, the Lancet researchers note. "Diabetes will be a defining disease of this century," journal editors wrote in an accompanying editorial on the findings.