Over 45% of American adults have type 2 diabetes mellitus or prediabetes

July 20, 2017|Diabetes Hub

Continued research and education are needed

More than 114 million American adults have type 2 diabetes mellitus or prediabetes, according to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As of 2015, the combined prevalence of diabetes and prediabetes was 45.4% among adults in the United States: 11.5% (30.3 million) have diabetes and 33.9% have prediabetes, representing 84.1 million people who could develop type 2 diabetes within 5 years, the CDC said in the National Diabetes Statistics Report, 2017.

Prevalence rates for both diabetes and prediabetes vary considerable by race/ethnicity, with non-Hispanic blacks having the highest combined rate at 54% (17.7% diabetes and 36.3% prediabetes), followed by non-Hispanic Asians at 51.7% (16% and 35.7%), Hispanics at 48.1% (16.4% and 31.7%), and non-Hispanic whites at 40.8% (9.3% and 40.8%), the CDC reported.

Lack of knowledge about having the disease was common: Almost a quarter (23.8%) of adults with diabetes didn’t know they had it, and the number jumped to 88% for those with prediabetes, based on data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which included a blood test for fasting plasma glucose or hemoglobin A_1c.

“More than a third of U.S. adults have prediabetes, and the majority don’t know it. Now, more than ever, we must step up our efforts to reduce the burden of this serious disease,” CDC Director Brenda Fitzgerald, MD, said in a statement.

rfranki@frontlinemedcom.com