Incidence of Diabetes Doubles in Just 10 Years

Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said:¹

"The rate of new cases of diagnosed diabetes rose by more than 90 percent among adults over the last 10 years."

Specifically:

"The incidence (new cases) of diagnosed diabetes has increased from 4.8 per 1,000 people during 1995-1997 to 9.1 per 1,000 in 2005-2007 in 33 states."

Below shows states with the highest number of new cases (in dark blue):²


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• Minnesota had the lowest number of new cases (5 per 1000).
  
• West Virginia (12.7 per 1000) and Puerto Rico (12.8 per 1000) had the highest.
  
• Other states with high rates included the mostly Southern states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Arizona.

This is the first report to describe geographic patterns in diabetes incidence.

These figures are only new cases (incidence rate). They don't represent how many people are thought to have diabetes at any one time (prevalence rate). According to the NIDDK, about 8% of the US population were thought to have diabetes in 2007 (prevalence). About a quarter of that 8% were undiagnosed. Since the present study only asked about diagnosed diabetes, it likely is underreporting the problem.
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¹ CDC Press Release: New Cases Of Diagnosed Diabetes On The Rise, State-Specific Data Provide Glimpse Into Geographical Differences
² CDC Full Report: State-Specific Incidence of Diabetes Among Adults --- Participating States, 1995--1997 and 2005--2007