A recent data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that nearly 16% of American adults which is nearly 1 in 6, now have diabetes.
According to a report in U.S. News, increasing age and widening waistlines greatly increase the odds of the disease, which happens when the body doesn’t use insulin properly, resulting in high blood sugar levels.
If diabetes is left unchecked, it can result in life-threatening conditions like heart disease, retinopathy and kidney disease among others. The new data from the CDC has been collected from mid-2021 through mid-2023. It found a huge rise in diabetes rates since 1999-2000 when 9.
7% of adult Americans had the disease. There was a significant gender gap in diabetes rates in 2023: Nearly 1 in 5 men (18%) have the illness, compared to 12.9% of women, according to researchers at the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).
Not surprisingly, diabetes rates rose with age. While just 3.6% of adults under 40 had the illness, rates rose to 12.
1% for folks ages 40 to 59 and to 20.5% for people 60 and older. Obesity too has a role in people with diabetes, the data found.
Nearly a quarter (24.2%) of obese adults now have diabetes. That’s compared to 12.
3% of folks who are overweight but not obese, and 6.8% of normal/underweight adults. According to a report in U.
S. News, education also seems to matter. While about 1 in every 5 (19.
6%) of Americans with a high school degree are diabetic, the rate falls to 10.7% .
