Virtual Diabetes Register (VDR)

Published online: 7 September 2021

Note: The VDR algorithm was updated in 2021 resulting in a small increase in the number of people estimated to have diabetes. It is important that the updated numbers are not compared with numbers derived using any previous version of the VDR. Any comparison may result in artificial and inaccurate trends.

Each year the New Zealand Ministry of Health releases national estimates of the prevalence of diabetes based on the VDR. The VDR is an important tool to monitor prevalence of diabetes and support national and local clinical quality improvements.

The VDR contains data about people suspected as having diabetes, identified through their use of diabetes related health services. The VDR uses an algorithm to identify these people in data extracted from hospital inpatient and outpatient, laboratory test type, and pharmaceutical dispensing data collections. The VDR is collated annually at the end of March. National and regional diabetes prevalence estimates are calculated based on the number of people on the VDR during the previous calendar year – in this case, during 2020. People suspected to have diabetes, who were alive and enrolled in a PHO at the 31 December of the VDR year, are included in the totals.

For further technical information about the VDR, see the Virtual Diabetes Register: Technical Guide.

Virtual Diabetes Register 2021 revision

The algorithm used to create the 2020 VDR now has two output methods.

• Output 1 (traditional method): the diabetes prevalence estimates are based solely on the number of people alive and enrolled in a PHO, at 31 December of the VDR year. This output method is useful for the purposes of health service planning, for example. The latest public release version of the VDR is v687.
• Output 2 (more inclusive version): the diabetes prevalence estimates are based on people who were alive and enrolled in a PHO at any point during the calendar year. This version can be used to:
  • better capture the population of people living with diabetes over the year of interest. This would be a useful output method when considering the cost and/or burden of disease over a year, for example.
  • include people that have died during the year. This allows more representative reporting of some outcomes, such as amputation rates for people with diabetes, and potentially other diabetes-related complications. 

The updated VDR algorithm allows for either method of diabetes prevalence calculation to be used.  The tables presented below contain data using output 1 of the VDR. If the user prefers to include people who were alive, those that have died, and PHO enrolled at any point during the year (output 2), this data is available to download below.

Virtual Diabetes Register 2017 historical revision

In 2016, the algorithm used to create the VDR was assessed against the Auckland TestSafe repository of actual glycaemic test results (for more information read the published article). As a result, improvements to the algorithm were made in early 2017 to create a revised version of the VDR.

Virtual Diabetes Register 2020 release

It is important to note that numbers produced by previous versions of the VDR algorithm are now obsolete and should not be used, nor compared to the numbers produced by the new VDR algorithm (v687). Please use the numbers published here or request updated numbers or datasets from [email protected].

Number of people on the Virtual Diabetes Register (VDR) by DHB of domicile, 2011–2020

DHB of domicile	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020
Auckland	18,438	19,562	20,781	21,922	22,875	23,375	23,847	24,730	26,432	28,224
Bay of Plenty	9,949	10,353	10,605	10,747	10,591	10,693	10,948	11,260	11,676	12,270
Canterbury	19,096	19,916	20,585	21,232	21,857	22,578	23,010	23,767	24,347	25,359
Capital & Coast	10,512	11,569	12,053	12,374	12,658	12,864	13,212	13,534	13,589	13,934
Counties Manukau	29,420	31,731	34,118	36,645	38,882	40,147	41,160	42,864	45,346	47,988
Hauora Tairāwhiti	2,899	3,078	3,212	3,334	3,417	3,358	3,320	3,326	3,552	3,838
Hawke's Bay	7,109	7,553	7,922	8,111	8,275	8,442	8,643	8,848	9,147	9,334
Hutt Valley	6,466	7,095	7,358	7,592	7,749	7,789	7,801	8,031	8,348	8,772
Lakes	4,506	4,788	4,940	5,197	5,425	5,549	5,673	5,719	5,926	6,153
MidCentral	7,671	8,080	8,250	8,429	8,643	8,740	8,961	9,217	9,603	10,024
Nelson Marlborough	5,521	5,662	5,772	5,909	5,975	6,029	6,068	6,147	6,272	6,517
Northland	9,191	9,926	10,730	11,118	11,295	11,401	11,482	11,546	11,780	12,025
South Canterbury	2,862	2,977	3,011	3,041	3,116	3,168	3,179	3,167	3,211	3,341
Southern	12,641	13,179	13,486	13,563	13,786	14,124	14,373	14,788	15,152	15,842
Taranaki	6,405	6,557	6,523	6,749	6,853	6,848	6,881	7,025	7,080	7,085
Waikato	17,565	18,334	19,183	20,015	20,840	21,382	22,204	23,037	23,879	24,977
Wairarapa	2,143	2,291	2,304	2,304	2,322	2,314	2,280	2,355	2,399	2,479
Waitematā	21,038	22,819	24,341	25,521	26,677	27,315	27,876	29,167	31,192	33,473
West Coast	1,229	1,255	1,250	1,233	1,199	1,363	1,442	1,519	1,579	1,642
Whanganui	3,327	3,502	3,555	3,632	3,722	3,839	3,907	4,060	4,236	4,432
Unknown/ Unassigned	292	267	246	215	197	175	142	117	102	94
Total	198,280	210,494	220,225	228,883	236,354	241,493	246,409	254,224	264,848	277,803

Source: VDR Dec 2011–2020 (v687)

Number of people aged between 15–74 years on the Virtual Diabetes Register 2020, by DHB of domicile and ethnicity

DHB	Māori	Pacific people	Indian	European/ Other	VDR total (age 15–74)	VDR total (all ages)	Percentage of people in the 15-74 age group
Auckland	1,953	6,001	4,114	10,594	22,662	28,224	80.3%
Bay of Plenty	3,041	268	475	5,253	9,037	12,270	73.7%
Canterbury	1,935	1,130	695	15,290	19,050	25,359	75.1%
Capital & Coast	1,463	2,095	960	6,306	10,824	13,934	77.7%
Counties Manukau	5,756	15,734	6,151	12,844	40,485	47,988	84.4%
Hauora Tairāwhiti	1,742	117	27	1,130	3,016	3,838	76.7%
Hawke’s Bay	2,466	469	217	4,003	7,155	9,334	79.8%
Hutt	1,296	1,140	578	3,989	7,003	8,772	79.1%
Lakes	2,071	228	169	2,396	4,864	6,153	75.8%
MidCentral	1,593	378	243	5,381	7,595	10,024	71.0%
Nelson Marlborough	562	123	75	3,864	4,624	6,517	77.2%
Northland	4,438	234	150	4,458	9,280	12,025	71.4%
South Canterbury	204	54	44	2,084	2,386	3,341	73.3%
Southern	1,136	517	247	9,717	11,617	15,842	78.6%
Taranaki	1,161	99	127	3,819	5,206	7,085	73.5%
Waikato	5,602	1,123	1,224	11,649	19,598	24,977	78.5%
Wairarapa	405	64	43	1,283	1,795	2,479	72.4%
Waitematā	2,528	4,312	2,938	16,577	26,355	33,473	78.7%
West Coast	140	25	9	1,060	1,234	1,642	75.2%
Whanganui	1,079	114	63	2,143	3,399	4,432	76.7%
Unknown/ Unassigned	14	10	5	48	77	94	81.9%
Total	40,585	34,235	18,554	123,888	217,262	277,803	78.2%

Number of people in the Virtual Diabetes Register, by age-group and ethnicity, 2020

Age-group	Māori	Pacific people	Indian	European / Other	Total
00-04	29	17	1	70	117
05-09	111	38	13	325	487
10-14	218	99	26	690	1,033
15-19	395	173	33	982	1,583
20-24	737	410	83	1,379	2,609
25-29	1,208	869	511	2,282	4,870
30-34	1,702	1,427	1,398	3,874	8,401
35-39	2,132	1,861	1,488	4,805	10,286
40-44	2,614	2,561	1,460	5,373	12,008
45-49	3,954	3,580	1,760	8,492	17,786
50-54	5,212	4,892	2,026	12,414	24,544
55-59	6,457	5,436	2,401	16,967	31,261
60-64	6,396	5,074	2,789	20,355	34,614
65-69	5,555	4,512	2,613	22,528	35,208
70-74	4,223	3,440	1,992	24,437	34,092
75-79	2,498	2,229	1,357	19,839	25,923
80-84	1,486	1,206	779	15,150	18,621
85+	710	609	416	12,625	14,360
Total	45,637	38,433	21,146	172,587	277,803

Number of people in the Virtual Diabetes Register, by DHB of domicile and ethnicity, 2020

DHB of domicile	Māori	Pacific people	Indian	European / Other	Total
Auckland	2,159	6,838	4,805	14,422	28,224
Bay of Plenty	3,496	293	522	7,959	12,270
Canterbury	2,190	1,252	749	21,168	25,359
Capital & Coast	1,638	2,422	1,135	8,739	13,934
Counties Manukau	6,333	17,551	7,059	17,045	47,988
Hauora Tairāwhiti	1,967	127	31	1,713	3,838
Hawke’s Bay	2,800	508	243	5,783	9,334
Hutt	1,422	1,282	665	5,403	8,772
Lakes	2,351	246	185	3,371	6,153
MidCentral	1,805	417	262	7,540	10,024
Nelson Marlborough	662	131	80	5,644	6,517
Northland	5,068	263	164	6,530	12,025
South Canterbury	233	59	46	3,003	3,341
Southern	1,298	571	262	13,711	15,842
Taranaki	1,311	106	135	5,533	7,085
Waikato	6,216	1,267	1,369	16,125	24,977
Wairarapa	475	71	43	1,890	2,479
Waitematā	2,808	4,867	3,305	22,493	33,473
West Coast	166	25	11	1,440	1,642
Whanganui	1,224	124	70	3,014	4,432
Unknown/Unassigned	15	13	5	61	94
Total	45,637	38,433	21,146	172,587	277,803

Virtual Diabetes Register web tool

A new Virtual Diabetes Register web tool is now available, including data from the 2020 update. This web tool presents the estimated numbers of people with diabetes, and the prevalence of diabetes per 1000 people, across different demographic groups in the population. The data presented in the web tool can be explored by year, ethnicity, sex, district health board of residence, deprivation quintile and age group.