Rate Of Diabetes Leveling Off In Some Groups

Recent findings published in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggest that the rate of type 2 diabetes appears to be leveling off.

Researchers with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) noted that the average number of adults with diabetes has increased to 0.6 percent per year from 2008 to 2012, with the number of new cases falling by an average of 5.4 percent.

The latest numbers actually suggest that the rate of adult diabetes might be coming to a hault, according to researchers. From 1990 to 2008, the number of diabetes cases increased an average of 4.5 percent annually. Yet from 1990 to 2008, the total number of diabetes cases fell from 35 per 1,000 to 79 per 1,000 while the yearly number of new cases increased from 3.2 per 1,000 to 8.8 per 1,000.

"Hopefully, we will begin seeing fewer people with diabetes because we are seeing fewer new cases of diabetes," Albright said. "But even with the slowing, we're still going to have lots of people with diabetes. This is telling us that some of the things we've been doing have been helping the situation, but we are going to have to monitor this carefully -- and we can't get lax because we have a long way to go."

Unfortunately, as obesity still remains a prominent issue throughout the country, the reduction did not include all groups. For instance, blacks and Hispanics, as well as poorly educated individuals in particular, continued to see an upward diabetic trend.

Researchers hope as more awareness takes hold regarding the health issue, they can more properly address the problem. The findings were based on analyzed data from 665,000 adults between the ages of 20 and 79 via the National Health Interview Survey.