Diabetes : A Major Chronic And Complex Public Health Problem

The incidences of diabetes are growing annually, and predicted to increase within the coming decades. The number of cases yearly is not only increasing, but the age of onset for diabetes has decreased. This means more individuals are developing diabetes at an earlier age. Diabetes not only affects individuals and communities but countries as well. The prevalence of diabetes has gathered billions of dollars in healthcare costs. [1]Type 2 diabetes also leads to other serious medical conditions such as heart disease, renal failure, blindness, and tissue damage in extremities that will eventually lead to amputation. These illnesses, as a result, result in further costs in the form of disability and the loss of a portion of our workforce. However, incidences of type 2 diabetes are in higher occurrence amongst Hispanic groups. According to the Hispanic Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, Mexican Americans have an unusually high prevalence of diabetes compared to that of the general population [2]. Hispanic females have the highest lifetime risk of becoming diabetic – 52% [3], compared to that of the average risk of

Diabetes is a prevalent health disparity among the Latino population. Diabetes is listed as the fifth leading cause of death among the Latino population in the website for Center for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, in 2009. According to McBean, “the 2001 prevalence among Hispanics was significantly higher than among blacks.” (2317) In other words among the Hispanic or Latino community, there is a higher occurrence of diabetes as compared to other racial/ethnic groups such as Blacks and Native Americans. The prevalence of diabetes among Latinos is attributed to the social determinants of health such as low socioeconomic status and level of education. Further, this becomes an important public health issue when it costs the

However, due to the United States’ aging population, along with an increasing prevalence of obesity, diabetes is on the increase. Of the approximately 313 million population count in the United States, 97 million adults are overweight or obese. “Both excess body fat and physical inactivity predispose to type 2 diabetes. Several ethnic groups are particularly susceptible to Type 2 diabetes” (Scott 1134). Hispanics, blacks,

Over the past few decades, there has been an increased concern about diabetes and its effects on minority populations. Type II Diabetes is also referred to as “adult onset diabetes”, and is a condition where the body does not regulate blood glucose effectively and resists insulin. This does not allow for glucose to get into the cells of fat tissue, the liver, and muscle cells and therefore they cannot function optimally. The National Center for Health Statistics reported that in 2012, African Americans had the highest amount of new reported cases of Type II diabetes when compared to all other racial and ethnic populations, and the second highest amount of overall diabetes diagnosis at 13.2%.1,2 In 2012, type II diabetes was the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States, and African Americans are nearly two times more likely to develop diabetes. More than 50% of all new diabetes cases are developed in African American populations, with a 27% higher mortality rate than Caucasians.1

Diabetes is continuing to progress in minorities and published in 2011 indicate that about 26 million Americans have diabetes, or about 8.3% of the US population. An additional, 79 million Americans have pre-diabetes, placing them at high risk for developing type 2 diabetes. (Hill J, Galloway JM, Goley A, et al. 2013). The public health burden of diabetes is even more evident in most racial and ethnic minority groups. The prevalence of type 2 diabetes and other comorbidities, including mortality, are higher for African Americans and Hispanics, the largest racial/ethnic minority groups in the US. Despite the reported successes seen in several national diabetes prevention and control studies, there is still more to be done to understand the best mechanisms for translating the results to patient care ( Spruill, IJ, Magwood GS, Nemeth, L. S & Williams, TH

Diabetes, which is also known as diabetes mellitus, is described as a group of metabolic diseases where a person has high blood glucose. This is caused by insulin production becoming inadequate (MacGill, 2015). In the United States alone almost 30 million adults and children have diabetes with around 86 million having prediabetes. This leading it to be one of the primary causes of death for 69,071 Americans each year. Studies show that Hispanics and Non Hispanic Blacks are at a higher risk of becoming diabetic compared to other races such as Asian Americans, Central and Southern Americans, and Cubans.

The burden of diabetes in the United States has become a persistent threat to the health and welfare of the people and the nation. Diabetes is ranked the seventh cause of death. Diabetes is a disease characterized by high levels of blood glucose caused by problems in insulin production, working of the produced insulin, or even both, which results in serious complications and ultimately death (National Diabetes Education Program, 2007). Type-two diabetes however, occurs when the body cannot produce enough insulin or make use of insulin the body produces effectively. It has been diagnosed in all shades of the U.S. population, and Hispanics are nearly as twice (12.8%) to have diabetes compared to non-Hispanic whites (7.6%) (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2016). Hispanics are disproportionately afflicted with diabetes compared with other ethnicities like Non-Hispanic whites or Asian Americans, looking at levels of diabetes complications (Appendix A, Figure 1).

The problem that is being researched in the article is type 2 diabetes is a steadily increasing common disease among the general minority population in the United States and is believed to affect at least three hundred million people by the year 2025. Type two diabetes had been reported to be much higher in minorities. The minority population commonly demonstrates higher level of blood glucose than people with Caucasian backgrounds. A study conducted in 2005, reported African Americans were twice likely to die from type 2 diabetes while the Hispanic population reported an estimated 1.6 times were likely to die from type 2 diabetes. Unfortunately those who have type 2 diabetes do not control their blood glucose level and are at greater risk

Diabetes mellitus is a medical condition that either develops because of a virus or develops over time as a result to poor diet and exercise. If left uncontrolled it may lead to serious complications such as stroke, vision loss, amputation, or even death. Type II Diabetes is a preventable disease that usually occurs when a patient has been a pre-diabetic for some time. Most people with Type 2 are overweight or obese which can lead to insulin resistance. “In the United States, 25.6 million or 11.3% of adults aged 20 years and older had diabetes in 2010. Non-Hispanic Blacks had the highest prevalence at 12.6% compared with non- Hispanic Whites at 7.1%” (Gaskin, D. J. et all, 2014). With the rising cost of healthcare there are millions of Americans

Almost everyone knows someone diagnosed with Diabetes. Diabetes is a growing epidemic in New Zealand which affects thousands of our adults and children. It is known that the population of people living in poorer neighbours are two times more likely to have diabetes than people in wealthier neighbourhoods. With healthcare costs on the fast track to be in the billions by 2021, this fact could become much more of a problem. Communities need to be educated about Diabetes early to ensure that people can deal with it before it is too late. This essay will explore Type 2 Diabetes; the issues it causes, the scientific biology behind it and to find out if insulin injection really is the best method in the treatment of Type 2 Diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes is emerging as a serious health challenge and has become a major global health crisis. This is especially true in the case of developing countries like India, where a combination of rapid urbanization, increasing sedentary lifestyles and a switch in nutrition has made it the centre of this epidemic. In 2000, India (31.7 million) topped the world with the highest number of people with diabetes mellitus. According to Wild et al.3 the prevalence of diabetes is predicted to double globally from 171 million in 2000 to 366 million in 2030 with a maximum increase in India. With stakes so high, India faces an uncertain future in regards to the burden of the disease. With identification of factors controlling diabetes and with adequate research into preventative care there may be some hope.

Diabetes is a common chronic disease that causes problems in the way the blood uses food. The inability of the body to transform the sugar into energy is called diabetes. Glucose, a simple sugar, is the primary source of fuel for our bodies. When food is digested, some of the food will be converted into glucose which is then transferred from the blood into the cells however, insulin, which is produced by beta cells in the pancreas is needed. In individuals with diabetes, this process is impaired.

In the 2010 census, 42.0 million people, approximately 14 percent of the U.S. population, identified themselves as black or African American. African American (AA) experience higher prevalence of many diseases, disability, death, and injury (cdc 1). It is observed that AA females are more likely to suffer from obesity, diabetes and heart diseases more than their White counterparts. Among AA females aged 2–19 years old, 24% are considered obese compared to 14% whites. A similar pattern was reported among women older than 20 years of age showing that 51% of AA women are obese compared to 33% of their counterpart White women. (1) The prevalence of obesity was inversely associated with the family income among Whites of all age groups. This was not the case in AA females, a higher prevalence of obesity was observed within most family income categories. (1) African American women also experience the highest rate of type 2 diabetes, especially those who are overweight or obese. Among AA females 65-74 years of age, it is reported that one in four women has diabetes. Since Diabetes is closely associated with obesity, primary prevention measures should include changes in the adverse behavioral lifestyle such as physical inactivity and poor diet ( Huff text book p 250-251). It is also noted that African American women with diabetes experience greater odds of disability than those without diabetes ( Thorpe 4). In addition, the rates of diseases that may lead to disabilities are more

Diabetes is a very serious disease often overlooked. Diabetes is a disease that affects 29.1 million people or 9.3% of the population in the United States. This disease results when there are high levels of sugar in the blood for an extended period of time. It can be controlled by diet, exercise, medication and insulin injections. There are three main types of diabetes; Type I, which affects primarily the younger population, type II, which primarily affects the population above forty years old, and gestational diabetes, which affects women during the third trimester of their pregnancy. While scientists do not know what causes diabetes, they do know that it is caused from a variety of factors that can vary from person to person, being

Diabetes has become a global problem in recent years. The International Diabetes foundation showed that the number of people diagnosed with diabetes during the last twenty years has risen from 30 million to over 246 million. (1). In the UK most health experts have realised the increasing number of people with diabetes. In the past decade those who had diabetes was 1.4 million in 1996 but in 2012 rose to 2.9 million.