The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has a new press release that announces new information about diabetes, including the fact that 40 percent of adults over 20 have diabetes but have not been diagnosed. The researchers, epidemiologists from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), report these findings in the February 2009 issue of Diabetes Care, which posted a pre-print version of the article online at http://diabetes.org/diabetescare. According to the press release, the study includes newly available data from an Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT).

The release says that diabetes is especially common in the elderly, and an additional 30 percent of adults have pre-diabetes. The study compared the results of two national surveys that included a fasting blood glucose (FBG) test and 2-hour glucose reading from an OGTT.

"We're facing a diabetes epidemic that shows no signs of abating, judging from the number of individuals with pre-diabetes," said lead author Catherine Cowie, Ph.D., of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), a part of the NIH. "For years, diabetes prevalence estimates have been based mainly on data that included a fasting glucose test but not an OGTT. The 2005-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, or NHANES, is the first national survey in 15 years to include the OGTT. The addition of the OGTT gives us greater confidence that we're seeing the true burden of diabetes and pre-diabetes in a representative sample of the U.S. population."

In the analysis, the research team found the following:

--The rate of diagnosed diabetes increased between the surveys, but the prevalence of undiagnosed diabetes and pre-diabetes remained relatively stable.
--Minority groups continue to bear a disproportionate burden. The prevalence of diabetes, both diagnosed and undiagnosed, in non-Hispanic blacks and Mexican- Americans is about 70 to 80 percent higher than that of non-Hispanic whites.
--Diabetes prevalence was virtually the same in men and women, as was the proportion of undiagnosed cases.
--Pre-diabetes is more common in men than in women (36 percent compared to 23 percent).
--Diabetes is rare in youth ages 12 to 19 years, but about 16 percent have pre-diabetes.

"These findings have grave implications for our health care system, which is already struggling to provide care for millions of diabetes patients, many of whom belong to vulnerable groups, such as the elderly or minorities," said Griffin P. Rodgers, M.D., director of the NIDDK. "Of paramount importance is the need to curb the obesity epidemic, which is the main factor driving the rise in type 2 diabetes."

Adapted from a press release by the NIH.

Link: http://www.nih.gov/news/health/jan2009/niddk-26.htm

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