Survey: 50% of US Adults Have Diabetes or Prediabetes
Rates of type 2 diabetes among Americans appear to have plateaued, but remain high, with 12%-14% of the population affected by the disease in 2011-2012, according to a recent data analysis.
In order to update estimated prevalence of diabetes, diagnosed diabetes, and undiagnosed diabetes in the US, researchers conducted an analysis of data from cross-sectional surveys conducted between 1988-1994 and 1999-2012 from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
RELATED CONTENT
Prevalence of Diabetes in the US Doubles
Identifying the Diabetes Burden in the South
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Prevalence of diabetes was determined using either previous diagnosis of the disease, or, in the absence of a diagnosis, by hemoglobin A1c levels greater than 6.5%, a fasting plasma glucose level of 126 mg/dL or greater, or 2-hour plasma glucose level of 200 mg/dL or greater. Prediabetes was defined as hemoglobin A1c levels of 5.7% to 6.4%, fasting plasma glucose levels of 100 mg/dL to 125 mg/dL, or 2-hour plasma glucose levels of 140 mg/dL to 199 mg/dL.
Overall, researchers found that in 2011-2012, 12%-14% (depending on the definition) of US adults had diabetes and 37%-38% had prediabetes. Of those with diabetes, 9.1% had been diagnosed, while 5.2% remained undiagnosed.
While prevalence increased significantly during the study periods, prevalence between 2007-2008 and 2011-2012 appeared to level off.
“In our study, we found a linear increase between 1988-1994 and 2011-2012, but prevalence estimates changed little between 2007-2008 and 2011-2012 using both diabetes definitions to estimate total diabetes prevalence. This plateauing of diabetes prevalence is consistent with obesity trends in the United States showing a leveling off around the same period,” they concluded.
—Michael Potts
Reference:
Menke A, Casagrande S, Geiss L, Cowie CC. Prevalence of and trends in diabetes among adults in the United States, 1988-2012. JAMA. 2015;314(10):1021-1029.