Social, Behavioral, and Psychosocial Causes of Diseases: Type 2 Diabetes (T2D)

B. Reason to Listen:   According to the “2013 Fast Fact Sheet” from the American Diabetes Association, nearly 26 million children and adults in the United States have diabetes, which is nearly 10% of the U.S. population.

151,000 people below the age of 20 years have diabetes (CDC, 2009). There has been an

With over 30 million people having diabetes, the prevalence is continuing to rise. An estimated 200,000 American youth are effected by type 1 diabetes and 40,000 new cases are diagnosed each year¹. The rate for type 1 diabetes in youth has increased by 1.8% each year. In comparison, the prevalence for type 2 diabetes in youth has increased at a rate of 4.8% annually². No matter whether diabetes is type 1 or type 2 in children, family involvement is essential for optimal outcomes³.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 8.3% of Americans, or more than 25 million people, are living with diabetes. (Gosse, 2014) My mother, my grandmother and I are part of that statistic. Diabetes is predominately found in middle-aged and older people. This can be people that are overweight and inactive.

The rate of diabetes in the United States is one of the highest compared to other developed countries. An estimate of 9.3% of the population have diabetes, of those with diabetes 27.8% have yet to be diagnosed (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2014). This means that approximately 8.1 million people are currently living with diabetes, but are unaware of it. As of 2012, 12.3% of people with diabetes were 20 years old or older, the largest population diagnosed with diabetes were adults 65 years old or older. 25.9% of this population lives with diabetes (CDC, 2014). On a national level, the CDC have launched initiatives that focus on prevention and disease management. The National Diabetes Prevention Program is an example of one such initiative. This program focuses on lifestyle changes,

According to the American Diabetes Association, more Americans die each year from diabetes than from AIDS and breast cancer combined. As a result, researchers have extensively studied the causes, treatments, and interventions for diabetes. Despite efforts to ameliorate its effects, diabetes remains a prevalent danger in society. In 2014, 7% of U.S. adults were living with diagnosed diabetes (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2016). In Louisiana that number was even higher - 10.4% of adults have been diagnosed with diabetes. Breaking it down by age group, however, in Louisiana 3% of people aged 18 and 44 have been diagnosed, and 15.2% of people 45-64. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2015a). Several studies have predicted future rates of diabetes both in the United States and worldwide - nearly all of these studies reached a similar conclusion: rates of diabetes will continue to rise (Boyle et al., 2001).

Type II Diabetes is a growing disease that according to Ley, Ardisson Korat, Qi, Tobias, Cuilin, Lu and ... Hu (2016) approximately 415 million adults are affected by this disease worldwide and in the United States in 2015, $348 million dollars was spent on treatment for

Diabetes affects over 180 million people in the US and is projected that by 2025 this figure will increase to 300 million.

The entire concept of diabetes is about living on the edge of trouble. While Type 1 Diabetes is a biological condition associated with a fundamental flaw in the way one's body produces or reacts to insulin a substance that controls and monitors sugar in the blood and cells Type 2 Diabetes is a social and cultural condition. Those most likely groups of people to have to live with it are persons of non-white nationalities (increasingly Hispanics and Asians) who live at or below the US poverty level and/or who have not achieved a very high level of educational advancement (California Department of Public Health, 2010). And in places like San Diego County, California, this puts a major number of people, young and old, quite literally on the border of health and wellness disasters.

According to the report from the center for disease and prevention (CDC) in 2011, nearly 26million Americans are suffering from Diabetes.3 Furthermore, CDC reported in 2014 that there are chances of 40% American adults developing diabetes in their lifetime and half of the ethnic minorities will be affected. It is worthwhile to note that obesity was reported as the reason for the tremendous increase.4

Diabetes is a major medical problem in the US. In the year 2015, it was reported that 86 million Americans are diagnosed with prediabetes (ADA, 2016). Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States (CDC, 2016). Research has

Diabetes affects 29.1 million people or 9.3% of the population with 21.0 million being diagnosed and 8.1 million people undiagnosed, according to the Centers for Disease Control, 2014 data. Numerous comorbidities associated with diabetes are preventable such as hypertension, lipid abnormalities and obesity, however the

According to a study provided in USNews, there are regional issues when it comes to the rates of type-2 diabetes within the United States today (Seppa, 2011). The "diabetes belt" that can clearly be seen in the Southeast part of the country is one of these regional issues. Southern people, on average, tend to have a higher incidence of diabetes than people in other areas of the country. With that in mind, it is important to realize that there are various reasons why that is the case. It is not just one factor causing the problems, and it is not just the Southeast where diabetes is seen. There are other areas of the country where pockets of diabetes are seen, so no specific place or region of the country is immune to problems with diabetes. The following map shows the basic breakdown of diabetes across the country for the latest year where statistics on the issue are available (Seppa, 2011).

Type 2 diabetes is a very well known disease throughout the US. There are about 27 million people in the US with the disease and 86 million others have prediabetes which means their blood glucose is not right but also not high enough to be diabetes yet. 208,000 people under the age of twenty have been diagnosed with either Type 1 or 2 Diabetes.

     According to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, about 17 million Americans have diabetes and every year about 1 million more age 20 or older are diagnosed with the disorder. People who are overweight, do not exercise, and are 30 years or older are more likely to get the disease (especially type 2 diabetes). People who are also of African American, Latino/Hispanic, Native American, Alaskan