Close to half of all American adults have type 2 diabetes or pre- diabetes, a new study finds.
Up to 14% of adults had diagnosed or undiagnosed type 2 diabetes in 2011-2012, and about 38% had diagnosed or undiagnosed pre diabetes, the researchers reported. Prediabetes is defined as having elevated blood sugar levels that aren’t high enough to be called full-blown diabetes.
“Prediabetes puts people at risk of diabetes in the future,” said lead researcher Catherine Cowie. She is program director of the U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases’ division of diabetes, endocrinology and metabolic diseases.
Although data from recent years suggests that the increase in the prevalence of diabetes may be leveling off, it’s still too high, Cowie said.
“Diabetes can be treated, but only if it is diagnosed,” she explained. “The medical community needs to be aware that there is a high rate of undiagnosed diabetes in the population.”
Type 2 diabetes is caused by obesity, poor eating habits and lack of exercise.
For the study, Cowie and her colleagues estimated the prevalence and trends in type 2 diabetes and undiagnosed diabetes using data from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys.
The prevalence of diabetes among whites was just over 11%. Among blacks, the prevalence of diabetes was almost 22%, among Asians it was close to 21% and among Hispanics it was more than 22%, the researchers found.
As to the prevalence of prediabetes, it was more than 30% in all sex and racial/ethnic categories and was highest among whites and blacks, Cowie said.
The highest number of undiagnosed cases of type 2 diabetes was among Asians, 51% and Hispanics, 49%.
Dr. William Herman is a professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. He said, “The doubling in the rate of obesity in the U.S. between 1980 and 2000 was followed 10 years later by a dramatic increase in the rate of type 2 diabetes.
Now it appears that the stabilization in the rate of obesity in the U.S. that has occurred since 2000 may be associated with a leveling off in the prevalence of diabetes, beginning in about 2010, he said.
Changes in cultural attitudes toward obesity, changes in food policy, implementation of ways to identify people at risk for it and support for behavioral change may be beginning to have an effect on the twin epidemics of obesity and type 2 diabetes, Herman suggested.
“Although progress has been made, expanded and sustained efforts will be needed to address these pressing health problems,” he said.
phillyhealth.com
September 9, 2015