Diabetes & pre-diabetes symptoms seen in half of American adults, study confirms

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It seems like obesity isn't the only health concern in the United States as a new analysis discovered that half of American adults are either diabetic or pre-diabetic, and the worst part is, some do not even know about it.

Forbes Magazine reports that the new study, published in the online journal JAMA, should be considered a wake up call for the nation as it discovers that 50 percent of American adults have elevated blood sugar levels. This means they are either diabetic, pre-diabetic or at a higher risk of getting diabetes in the long run. Besides being a costly disease, diabetes is known to damage the eyes, blood vessels, kidneys and can reduce wound healing, resulting to gangrene or infection.

According to the American Diabetes Association, more than 70,000 patients die from diabetes complications, and this could be due to their condition being undiagnosed. An individual with undiagnosed diabetes experiences higher than 126 mg/dl hemoglobin a1c, the golden standard in measuring long term control of glucose.

The researchers estimated diabetes and pre-diabetes prevalence using the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data of almost 3,000 American adults from the years 2011 to 2012, Reuters writes. They also used information collected from almost 24,000 adults from the years 1988 to 2010. Through these data, the team discovered that 11 percent of Caucasian adults, 23 percent of Hispanic adults and 21 percent of Asians have diabetes and surprisingly, 51 percent Asian Americans are unaware of their condition.

In conclusion, the researchers believe prevalence of diabetes has increased over time in almost every race, ethnic group, sex and age group, NBC News adds. This is further increased if body mass index (BMI) will be used to classify individuals, as a BMI of 30 or greater is already considered diabetic and medically obese. This rule does not apply for Asian Americans, however, as they only have an average BMI of 25, which scientifically classifies them as overweight and not obese.

Lead author and epidemiologist from Social and Scientific Systems Andy Menke states that individuals need to be educated regarding the risk factors of diabetes, which include family history and obesity, and help improve the screening of those who have higher risk. 

But, Dr. William Herman and Dr. Amy Rothberg from the University of Michigan commented on the study, stating that increased awareness could be the reason why there is an increase in the number of diagnosed cases. They also argue that the drop in the number of undiagnosed cases could be due to recent simple testing, where fasting is not required.