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Indicator Report - Diabetes Prevalence

Why Is This Important?

Diabetes has reached epidemic proportions in the U.S. About 25.8 million Americans (8.3% of the U.S. population) have diabetes. However, data from the National Health and Nutrition Survey indicate that about one-fourth to one-third of people with diabetes (over 7 million Americans) have diabetes but don't know they have it and are not yet diagnosed. Another 79 million have pre-diabetes, a condtion that puts them at high risk for developing diabetes unless steps are taken to prevent it. In Utah, approximately 45,000 people have diabetes but are not yet diagnosed.

Diabetes is a disease that can have devastating consequences. It is the leading cause of non-traumatic lower-extremity amputation and renal failure. It is also the leading cause of blindness among adults younger than 75. It is one of the leading causes of heart disease.

Diabetes places an enormous burden on health care resources, approximately $174 billion annually ($116 billion in direct medical costs and $58 billion in indirect costs such as disability, work loss, and premature mortality). (See American Diabetes Association, http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/31/3/596.abstract). If undiagnosed diabetes, prediabetes, and gestational diabetes were considered in the cost, the total would be closer to $218 billion. In Utah, more than a billion dollars each year are spent on direct and indirect costs of diabetes.

A model using simulated data projected that diabetes incidence will increase from the current rate of 8 cases per 1,000 population to about 15 in 2050. Prevalence of diabetes (including undiagnosed cases) can be as high as one of three Americans by 2050.
(http://www.pophealthmetrics.com/content/8/1/29)

Percentage of Adults With Diabetes, Age-adjusted Rates by Year, Utah, 2009-2011

::chart - missing::

Data Notes

"Don't know" and "Refused" responses were eliminated from the denominator.  Rates are age-adjusted using 8 age groups. Beginning in 2011, BRFSS data include both landline and cell phone respondent data along with a new weighting methodology called iterative proportional fitting, or raking. This methodology utilizes additional demographic information (such as education, race, and marital status) in the weighting procedure. Both of these methodology changes were implemented to account for an increased number of U.S. households without land line phones and an under-representation of certain demographic groups that were not well-represented in the sample. This graph is based on the new methodology. More details about these changes can be found at: http://health.utah.gov/opha/publications/brfss/Raking/Raking%20impact%202011.pdf.

Data Sources

Utah Data: Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, Office of Public Health Assessment, Utah Department of Health. U.S. Data: Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), Division of Behavioral Surveillance, CDC Office of Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services.

Other Views


Definition

Percentage of Utah adults diagnosed with diabetes.

How We Calculated the Rates

Numerator: Number of Utah adults who reported being told by a health care professional that they have diabetes (excludes women who were told they had diabetes only during pregnancy or those who reported they had "borderline" or pre-diabetes).
Denominator: Utah adults 18 and over.

Page Content Updated On 08/27/2012, Published on 08/30/2012
The information provided above is from the Utah Department of Health's Center for Health Data IBIS-PH web site (http://ibis.health.utah.gov). The information published on this website may be reproduced without permission. Please use the following citation: "Retrieved Tue, 21 May 2013 15:47:08 from Utah Department of Health, Center for Health Data, Indicator-Based Information System for Public Health Web site: http://ibis.health.utah.gov".

Content updated: Tue, 21 May 2013 15:47:08