Diabetes mellitus prevalence among traditional Roma women in Serbia: a reply to Brož and Nunes

Abstract

This is in response to the article by Brož and Nunes (2019) regarding the prevalence of diabetes among Serbian Roma women. The authors inadvertently refer to only one instead of two recent studies on Roma women’s health conducted among two separate Roma groups: the Romanian Roma in northern Serbia (N=82) (Coe & Čvorović, 2017) and the Gurbeti Roma (N=414) from western Serbia (Čvorović, 2018). In both studies, the samples were voluntary, health was selfreported and prevalence of diabetes among women with chronic diseases was 11.8% and 9.66%, respectively. At present, the Serbian Roma population is estimated to range from 100,000 to 500,000. This discrepancy is due to many Roma declaring as members of the majority as many deny their ethnic identity. Reliable data on Roma chronic disease prevalence and incidence do not exist as there are no precise data about their total number