The prevalence of diabetes has increased dramatically over the past three decades, and currently, China has the largest number of diabetics worldwide; this number continues to grow and puts ongoing strains on the medical resources. In this review, we reviewed the diabetes research conducted in China from 1995 to 2015 with the aim of providing new insights regarding the current status and future perspectives for researchers, diabetes health providers, and respective policy-makers. Remarkable progress has been made in diabetes research in China during the past two decades in terms of both the quantity and publication influence. The progress, however, struggles to adequately manage diabetes in China. Here we addressed opportunities to strengthen researches, including new drug development, high quality studies on health economics, and healthcare quality improvement studies. As the expected wave of diabetic complications is upcoming and overwhelming, we therefore recommend that immediate improvements are required to implement the researches regarding their prevention and treatment.
Keywords: basic research; clinical research; diabetes; publication influence; publication number; traditional Chinese medicine.