Diabetes Health in The News: More than 100 Million People Suffer from Prediabetes or Diabetes

In its annual National Diabetes Statistic Report, the CDC stated that over 100 million people have a diagnosis of prediabetes or diabetes. This information, which was based on data from 2015, shows that 30.3 million Americans suffer from diabetes and another 84.1 million have prediabetes. This disease is one of the top ten killers in the U.S., ranking seventh in 2015.

The center suspects over a third of Americans meet the requirements for prediabetes, but many do not know it. Only 11.6% of individuals with prediabetes knew they suffered from the disease. Others had not been diagnosed for various reasons, leaving them to continue living an unhealthy lifestyle and moving closer to diabetes. During 2015, physicians diagnosed about 1.5 million patients with diabetes, but again, there could be as many as 7.2 million people who have gone undiagnosed.

This study included a geographic breakdown of where diabetes was the most prevalent. The study showed that those who live in the southern U.S. or the Appalachians had a higher risk of diabetes.

These findings were published in Endocrine Today, on July 18, 2017.