Diabetes: Statistically Speaking – Part 1: The U.S. Government (derived from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases) provides some statistics on diabetes that is, at times, hopeful and, at others, sobering. This article is dedicated to these government findings.
- In 1988 to 1994, among U.S. adults aged 40 to 74 years, 33.8 percent had Impaired Fasting Glucose (IFG), 15.4 percent had Impaired Glucose Tolerance (IGT), and 40.1 percent had pre-diabetes—IGT or IFG or both.
- In 1999 to 2000, 7.0 percent of U.S. adolescents aged 12 to 19 years had IFG.
- In 2003 to 2006, 25.9 percent of U.S. adults aged 20 years or older had IFG—35.4 percent of adults aged 60 years or older. Applying this percentage to the entire U.S. population in 2007 yields an estimated 57 million American adults aged 20 years or older with IFG, suggesting that at least 57 million American adults had pre-diabetes in 2007.
After adjusting for population age and sex differences, IFG prevalence among U.S. adults aged 20 years or older in 2003 to 2006 was 21.1 percent for non-Hispanic blacks, 25.1 percent for non-Hispanic whites, and 26.1 percent for Mexican Americans. - In the Diabetes Prevention Program, a large prevention study of people at high risk for diabetes, lifestyle intervention reduced the development of diabetes by 58 percent over 3 years. The reduction was even greater, 71 percent, among adults aged 60 years or older.
- Interventions to prevent or delay type 2 diabetes in individuals with pre-diabetes can be feasible and cost-effective. Research has found that lifestyle interventions are more cost-effective than medications.
Diabetes
Prevalence of Diagnosed and Undiagnosed Diabetes in the United States, All Ages, 2007
- Total: 23.6 million people—7.8 percent of the population—have diabetes.
- Diagnosed: 17.9 million people
- Undiagnosed: 5.7 million people
- About 186,300 people younger than 20 years have diabetes—type 1 or type 2. This represents 0.2 percent of all people in this age group.
- A total of 1.6 million new cases of diabetes were diagnosed in people aged 20 years or older in 2007.
- Based on 2002 to 2003 data, 15,000 youth in the United States were newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes annually, and about 3,700 youth were newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes annually.
- Diabetes was the seventh leading cause of death listed on U.S. death certificates in 2006. This ranking is based on the 72,507 death certificates in 2006 in which diabetes was listed as the underlying cause of death. According to death certificate reports, diabetes contributed to a total of 233,619 deaths in 2005, the latest year for which data on contributing causes of death are available.
- Overall, the risk for death among people with diabetes is about twice that of people without diabetes of similar age.
We thought it important to share the hope filled statistics related to pre-diabetes first simply because there is very strong evidence to show that a lifestyle change can result in a return to normal glucose. It also provides the best (and least expensive) way to potentially avoid onset diabetes.
On the other hand the statistics for diabetes are extremely sobering. What concerns most doctors is the growing number of young people who are developing Type 2 diabetes – a disease they would rather prevent than treat.
In part 2 of this report we will look at some of the diseases that seem to be more prevalent among those with diabetes and the complications they present to the diabetic.
