African Americans and Diabetes: the growing epidemic

Diabetes is a chronic metabolic disease in which the body does not produce or properly use insulin, a hormone that is needed to convert sugar, starches, and other food into energy.

How many African Americans have diabetes?

• Over 2.2 million African Americans have diabetes; 1.5 million have been diagnosed and 730,000 have not yet been diagnosed.
• There are 4 times as many African Americans diagnosed with diabetes today as there were in 1968.
• For every 6 white Americans who have diabetes, 10 African Americans have the disease.
• Among African Americans 20 years and older, the prevalence of diabetes is 8.2 percent compared with 4.8 percent among non-Hispanic whites.

• Type 1 diabetes accounts for 5 to 10 percent of all cases.
• Type 2 diabetes accounts for 90 to 95 percent of all cases.

• In every age group the prevalence of diabetes is higher among African American women than among African American men.
• Among African Americans 20 years or older, 11.8 percent of women and 8.5 percent of men have diabetes.
• Nearly one out of three African American women ages 65 to 74 years has diabetes.

• Diabetes is particularly common among middle-aged and older African American adults.
• The proportion of the African American population that has diabetes rises from less than 1 percent for those younger than 20 years old to as high as 32 percent for women ages 65 to 74 years old.
• 28 percent of women and 19 percent of men ages 50 and older have diabetes.
• In just 12 years, national health surveys show that diabetes' prevalence for African Americans ages 40 to 74 has doubled from 8.9 percent in 1976-1980 to 18.2 percent in 1988-1994.
• In the 1988-1994 National Health and Nutrition Survey (NHANES III), 11.2 percent of whites ages 40 to 74 years had diabetes compared with 18.2 percent of blacks.

• Death rates for people with diabetes are 27 percent higher for blacks compared with whites.
• Diabetes is the fifth leading cause of death for those ages 45 years or older.

• African Americans with diabetes are more likely to develop diabetes complications and experience greater disability from the complications than whites.
• The frequency of diabetic retinopathy is 40 to 50 percent higher in African Americans than in white Americans.
• African Americans with diabetes experience kidney failure (also called end-stage renal disease) about four times more often than diabetic white Americans. In 1995, there were 27,258 new cases of kidney failure attributed to diabetes in black Americans.
• African Americans are much more likely to undergo a lower-extremity amputation than white or Hispanic Americans with diabetes. In 1994, there were 13,000 amputations among black people with diabetes, involving 155,000 days in the hospital.

• The chances of having diabetes complications can be reduced or delayed significantly by keeping blood sugar levels under control.
• People with diabetes should try to keep their blood sugar level at less than 7 percent as measured by the hemoglobin A1c test. This simple lab test gives the best picture of blood sugar control over a 3-month period and should be done at least twice a year for all people with diabetes.
• People with diabetes can control the disease by eating the right amounts of a variety of foods, getting regular physical activity, taking diabetes medicine as prescribed, and monitoring blood sugar levels.
• For free information about diabetes control, people with diabetes can call 1-800-438-5383 or visit the National Diabetes Education Program's web sites at http://ndep.nih.gov or http://www.cdc.gov/diabetes.