American Diabetes Month Facts and Figures
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Prevalence
- Diabetes affects nearly 30 million children and adults in the U.S. today—nearly 10 percent of the population.
- Another 86 million Americans have prediabetes and are at risk for developing type 2 diabetes.
- Recent estimates project that as many as 1 in 3 American adults will have diabetes by 2050 unless we take steps to Stop Diabetes®.
- Every 19 seconds someone in the U.S. is diagnosed with diabetes.
- African Americans and Hispanics are almost twice as likely to have diabetes as non-Hispanic whites.
The Toll on Health
- Diabetes nearly doubles the risk for heart attack and for death from heart disease.
- Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure.
- Diabetes is the leading cause of new cases of blindness among working-age adults.
- The rate of amputation for people with diabetes is 10 times higher than for people without diabetes.
- Roughly 60 to 70 percent of people with diabetes have mild to severe forms of nerve damage that
could result in pain in the feet or hands, slowed digestion, sexual dysfunction and other nerve problems.
Cost of Diabetes
- The American Diabetes Association estimates that the total national cost of diagnosed diabetes in the U.S. is $245 billion.
- Direct medical costs reach $176 billion and the average medical expenditure among people
with diabetes is more than two times higher than those without the disease. - Indirect costs amount to $69 billion (disability, work loss, premature mortality).
- Direct medical costs reach $176 billion and the average medical expenditure among people
- 1 in 10 health care dollars is spent treating diabetes and its complications.
- 1 in 5 health care dollars is spent caring for people with diabetes.
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Information in this post was originally published on the American Diabetes Association website.