© David Gray / Reuters
Half of all US adults currently have diabetes or pre-diabetes, a new study revealed. The new research shows that the disease has made gains across every racial and ethnic group in the last 18 years, regardless of income level or education.
"We found 14% of the people in the US have diabetes, and this was even higher in blacks, Asians and Hispanics," said Andy Menke, PhD, epidemiologist and lead author for the study, which was
published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Previous studies had shown cases of diabetes, once a rare disease, increasing.
There are currently an estimated 27 million people with diabetes and 86 million with pre-diabetes in the US,
according to the WebMD website.
Researchers conducting the study wanted find percentages for those in the population who had been diagnosed with diabetes, those with undiagnosed diabetes, and those with pre-diabetes indicators.
Among the findings was that diabetes was more prevalent in those aged 65 years and older, with 33 percent affected, compared to those aged 45-64 years (17.5 percent), and those aged 45 or younger (5 percent). Broken down by gender, diabetes affected 15 percent of men and 13 percent of women.
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