The prevalence as well as actual number of people with type 2 diabetes has been increasing in Finland during the past decades, in parallel with an increase in overweight and obesity. Besides obesity, population aging is among the main drivers of increasing numbers of diabetic patients. Type 2 diabetes brings along complications, most importantly cardiovascular diseases, and increasing type 2 diabetes prevalence has also been suggested to lead to a new upward turn in cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, it is important to implement activities to prevent type 2 diabetes. We present the trial evidence for the prevention of type 2 diabetes with emphasis on the Finnish Diabetes Prevention Study findings. Furthermore, we discuss the practical implementation of screening of individuals for high type 2 diabetes risk and prevention of type 2 diabetes in Finland at the population level and describe how they have contributed to European level initiatives.

Highlights

• T2D is increasing and predisposes to serious complications.
• On population level, T2D trends follow the obesity trends.
• The risk of T2D can be markedly reduced by lifestyle intervention.
• High-risk individuals can be identified with FINDRISC, a simple T2D risk score.
• Finnish national T2D program has lead the way to many international initiatives.