One in 3 US adults could have diabetes in 2050

The sharp rise in the prevalence of diabetes among US adults is due in large part to an aging population, which is more likely to develop type 2 diabetes; increases in minority groups that are at high risk for type 2 diabetes; and people with diabetes living longer, according to the CDC.

African-Americans, Hispanics, American Indians/Alaska Natives, and some Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders are more likely to develop the condition, for which other key risk factors, besides belonging to a high-risk ethnic group, are older age, obesity, family history, and a sedentary lifestyle. The projection that one-third of all US adults will have diabetes by 2050 assumes that recent increases in new cases of diabetes will continue and people with diabetes will also live longer, which adds to the total number of people with the disease.

The CDC also projects that the number of new diabetes cases each year will nearly double from eight out of every 1,000 people in 2008, to 15 per 1,000 in 2050.

Diabetes is also projected to grow in other countries, said the study, published in the journal Population Health Metrics.

An estimated 285 million people worldwide had diabetes in 2010, according to the International Diabetes Federation.

“These are alarming numbers that show how critical it is to change the course of type 2 diabetes,” said Ann Albright, director of the CDC’s Division of Diabetes Translation.

“Successful programs to improve lifestyle choices on healthy eating and physical activity must be made more widely available, because the stakes are too high and the personal toll too devastating to fail,” she said. —AFP

A large study conducted by the CDC of people at high risk for diabetes found that simple lifestyle changes, such as eating a healthy diet and getting more exercise, reduced the risk of developing diabetes by 58 per cent during a three-year period.

Among adults aged 60 years and older, the reduction was even greater, at 71 per cent.

Diabetes — a group of diseases marked by high levels of blood glucose resulting from defects in insulin production, insulin action, or both — was the seventh leading cause of death in the United States in 2007.

About 24 million Americans have diabetes, and one-quarter of them do not know they have it.

It is the leading cause of new cases of blindness among US adults under age 75, the leading cause of kidney failure, and the cause of more than 60 per cent of nontraumatic lower limb amputations.