The US Centers for Disease Control has just released a new report on the prevalence rates of diabetes in the US in their Friday edition of Morbidity and Mortality, and the news isn’t good. While we all know that the rate of diabetes has been rising, and that everywhere alarm bells are being sounded and medical professionals are warning about the dire consequences of this unchecked growth, rarely do you see concrete numbers comparing today’s rate to that of previous years. The CDC’s report gives us exact figures, and shows us that since 1995 the prevalence rate has jumped dramatically.
The CDC has created this report by pulling data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, which annually surveys adults aged 18+. Using the BSFSS’s data going back to 1995, the CDC found that the median prevalence of diabetes cases had increased from 4.5% in 1995 to 8.2% in 2010.
This means that as of 2010, out of the total US population of about 310,000,000, an estimated 18.8 million people in the US had been diagnosed with diabetes, and another 7.0 million had undiagnosed diabetes.
While the rates of increase may have differed from state to state, the fact remains that every state (including Puerto Rico and D.C.) as of 2010 has greater than 6%. Six states, however, had rates that were greater than 10%. These were Alabama, Mississippi, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia. Only twelve states reported between 6% and 7%: Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Vermont, and Wyoming.
What’s perhaps even more shocking was not just the sheer percentage of people within each state that reported having diabetes, but the rate of increase that certain states showed relative to their 1995 figures. While most states ranged between a 50% to 100% increase, Oklahoma reported a stunning 226% increase, while Kentucky reported 158%, Georgia 145%, Alabama 140%, and Washington 135%.
These rates of increase show that the problem is rapidly spiraling out of control, and that over the next decade it is nearly impossible to imagine how many people may develop diabetes, and what the ultimate cost may be to both our citizens and to our nation. It’s sobering to remember that these numbers and rates do not reflect the sizeable group of people who are prediabetic, have borderline diabetes, or women with gestational diabetes.
In light of these numbers the CDC stated that we need to focus ever more attention on strategies to prevent diabetes and the elimination of risk factors, while citing the continued need of vigilant surveillance of the rise of diabetes across the nation so that we may be aware of the epidemic that is afflicting our country.
– Phil Tucker is a health and fitness blogger. Visit his website to learn more, or read his blog!