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Diabetes Tracking and Prevention Shows Progress
CDC’s diabetes prevention and research activities made new strides in 2008. For the first time, estimates of diabetes rates became available at the county level for all of the United States. In response to these new estimates, state-based prevention programs are identifying and referring more prediabetic Americans into group-based lifestyle programs.
CDC is the only federal agency that develops national surveillance systems for diabetes incidence data. Previously, data were only available at the state level. In July 2008, estimates of diabetes rates became available in each county. These data are an important step toward addressing the burden of diabetes. Nationally, the data indicate increased diabetes rates in areas of the Southeast and Appalachia that have traditionally been recognized as being at higher risk for many chronic diseases, including cancer, heart disease, and stroke.
Recent clinical trials have established that moderate weight loss through exercise and healthy eating can reduce the risk for diabetes by nearly 60% for the estimated 57 million Americans with prediabetes. Interventions may be cost effective if the annual per-person cost can be reduced to $100–$200 and if the programs can maintain the quality standards established in the clinical trials. A CDC-funded primary prevention pilot in Minnesota recently documented an annual cost of $160 per participant for lifestyle interventions delivered in group settings. The estimated 5%–7% weight loss in these participants was consistent with results achieved in clinical trials and supports and sustains CDC’s Health Protection Goal of Healthy People in a Healthy World.
State-based diabetes prevention and control programs, under the auspices of CDC’s Diabetes Primary Prevention Initiative (DPPI), are demonstrating success in identifying individuals with prediabetes and referring them to lifestyle programs in group settings such as those at the YMCA. DPPI is achieving these results in populations that largely comprise the medically underserved. These efforts provide the foundation for translating primary prevention science into widespread and broad-based community practice.
Diabetes Snapshot
Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death and the leading cause of adult blindness, kidney failure, and non-traumatic lower extremity amputation. Heart disease deaths are 2–4 times higher for adults with diabetes.
In the last 15 years, the number of people in the United States with diabetes has more than doubled, reaching nearly 24 million Americans.
In addition to diabetes, 57 million US adults have prediabetes—elevated blood glucose levels not yet high enough to be classified as diabetes. Prediabetes increases the chances of developing diabetes 10- to 15-fold.
The total cost of diabetes in the United States in 2007 was $174 billion, or 20% of total US health care costs.
2005 County Level Estimates of Diagnosed Diabetes in the United States
The prevalence of diagnosed diabetes by county was estimated using data from CDC's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) and data from the US Census Bureau’s Population Estimates Program. Three years of data are used to improve the precision of the year-specific county-level estimates of diagnosed diabetes estimates. For example, 2004, 2005, and 2006 were used for the 2005 estimate. We are currently working on the county-level estimates for 2006.
Map provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: National Diabetes Surveillance System.�This map and additional information can be found online at www.cdc.gov/diabetes/statistics/index.htm, retrieved 12/15/2008.
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