How Common is Diabetes for Adults in the US?

November is American Diabetes Month here in the US. As healthcare providers and educators, we here at Abraham Family Medicine feel it is our duty to provide helpful information to our patients on conditions like diabetes to reinforce how common and serious they can be. Diabetes is incredibly common for people of all ages, but typically develops once someone is already in their adult years (type 2 diabetes). This is why it’s so critical to understand diabetes and be proactive when it comes to preventing it. Today, we thought it would be instructive to provide some basic statistics about diabetes to show just how common it is, and offer some recommendations on how to prevent or treat it.

• According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), roughly 38.4 million people in the US (or 11.6% of the total US population) are currently living with diabetes.
• About 8.7 million of these cases (just under 23%) are currently undiagnosed.
• About 1.2 million new cases of diabetes are diagnosed each year in the US.
• An additional 97.6 million American adults (38% of the adult population) have prediabetes, and are at an increased risk of developing diabetes.
• Diabetes risk increases with age, typically starting around age 45.
• Over 29% of Americans age 65 and older are living with diabetes.

Thankfully, diabetes can often be prevented. In many cases, diabetes and prediabetes develop as a result of unhealthy lifestyle habits that can be reversed or altered. This means making healthy adjustments to your lifestyle including eating a healthier diet (rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins), getting more exercise, quitting smoking, and always making sure to drink plenty of water each day.

It’s important to visit your healthcare provider for an annual check-up appointment each year to make sure that you are healthy and discuss what you can do to avoid health conditions like diabetes. For more information or if you would like to schedule an appointment, please contact Abraham Family Medicine today. We offer a wide variety of general healthcare services for people of all ages at our Snellville office, located very close to Grayson, Dacula, and Lilburn.