F.Y.I.

• Diabetes is a chronic disease that has no cure.
• Diabetes is the sixth leading cause of death by disease (seventh leading cause of death) in the United States with 190,000 related deaths annually.
• Ohio has the third highest rate of death due to diabetes in the United States.
• Ohio ranks 24th in prevalence of diabetes.
• There are approximately 23.6 million people (7.8 percent of the population) with diabetes in the United States--only 17.9 million are diagnosed. That means more than 5.7 million are not aware of having the disease.
• At least 16 million people have pre-diabetes, with blood glucose levels higher than normal but not yet diabetes. If not addressed these people will develop diabetes.
• One in 10 people will develop diabetes in their lifetime.
• The numbers are growing. Each day approximately 2,200 people are diagnosed with diabetes. By the year 2025, it is estimated there will be 32 million people with diabetes--double today's statistics.
• Ohio ranks eighth in the number of people diagnosed with diabetes with an estimated 429,000 adult Ohioans having the disease. California leads the list (1,274,00) followed by Texas (701,000), New York (665,000), Florida (650,000), Illinois (557,000), Pennsylvania (502,000) and Michigan (442,000).
• Diabetes is one of the most costly health problems in America. The total economic cost of diabetes in 2002 was estimated to be $132 billion. That includes $92 billion in direct health-care costs and $40 billion for indirect costs attributed to disability and mortality.
• African Americans are 1.7 times as likely to have Type 2 diabetes as the general population. An estimated 2.3 million African Americans have diabetes (10.8 percent of all African Americans).
• Hispanic Americans are almost twice as likely to have Type 2 diabetes. An estimated 1.2 million Mexican Americans have diabetes.
• Overall prevalence of Type 2 diabetes in Native Americans is 12.2 percent vs. 5.2 percent of the general population. In some tribes, half of the population has diabetes.
• The risk of developing Type 1 diabetes is higher than virtually all other severe chronic diseases of childhood.
• There is a higher incidence of Type 1 diabetes in whites than in other racial groups.
• The U.S. Government spends only $1 for diabetes research compared to every $7 spent on AIDS and breast cancer, even though diabetes afflicts more Americans (16 million) and costs more money ($91 billion a year in direct costs) than both AIDS and breast cancer combined (3.35 million/$16.9 billion).

What Is Needed?

In an ideal situation, people with diabetes will have their disease under good control and visit with their diabetes health-care team regularly. This is the exception rather than the rule. As the statistics indicate, diabetes is on the increase and the complications are serious and costly. Early detection, more patient education, increasing health-care team participation and setting goals for better self management are needed for change to occur. The Central Ohio Diabetes Association is committed to helping people with diabetes learn to live well with the challenge of diabetes.