New York City is facing an epidemic of
diabetes, new figures showing that nearly 8 percent of adults in the city have
the disease, double the rate of eight years ago.
This rate, which mirrors national trends, is particularly high in the city's
poorest neighborhoods, where obesity rates are also extremely high, according to
data collected by the city's Department of Health in a study last spring of
10,000 New Yorkers that the department says is the largest health survey ever
conducted in the city.
For example, the study found that in East New York, Brooklyn, more than 31
percent of the residents are obese, and 13 percent have diabetes. In the South
Bronx, 27.3 percent are obese and 13.9 percent have diabetes. The disease was
least prevalent on the Upper East Side, where less than 2 percent of residents
are diabetic, and only 7 percent are considered obese.
Last year, diabetes was the sixth-leading cause of death in New York City,
although city health officials said that the number of people who die from
diabetes is probably underestimated.
In the city, 12.2 percent of Hispanics have diabetes, as do 10.8 percent of
non-Hispanic blacks. Whites who are not Hispanic have the lowest rate - 5
percent - and Asians are second to last, with 6.8 percent. The Bronx leads the
city in diabetics, with 11.5 percent of residents having the illness, while 4.6
percent of Staten Island residents have it.
Dr. Frieden has made addressing chronic diseases a focus of his department since
he was appointed last year. Health Department officials said that nearly 80
percent of New Yorkers with diabetes are overweight, the study found.
Nationwide, 7.8 percent of adults have diabetes, and that rate has also doubled
in the last several years.
Perhaps more alarming, between one quarter and one half of children nationwide
with diabetes have Type 2 diabetes, which is often related to obesity, according
to Dr. Kaufman, who is also an endocrinologist at the Children's Hospital of Los
Angeles. New York health officials estimate that in the city the rate is closer
to 50 percent.
City officials were startled to see that many doctors in private practice and in
city hospitals fail to manage the care of diabetics, and do not do basic things
like take regular blood-sugar readings of their patients. For instance,
only 15 percent of respondents in the study with self-reported diabetes knew
their blood-sugar level. This has led researchers to conclude that
thousands of New Yorkers are at risk for developing serious complications, many
of them potentially life-threatening, like heart disease, kidney failure and
problematic pregnancies.
Dr. Frieden said that the city would take aggressive steps to educate city
doctors and hospital workers about diabetes management, and would begin by
pushing the public hospitals to get certified in special diabetes-management
techniques,as other hospitals in the nation have done. While studies show that
even modest weight loss and increased exercise can greatly reduce the symptoms
of Type 2 diabetes, Dr. Frieden said, it was more realistic to focus on managing
the disease then on pushing people to lose weight.
He did say, however, that his office would try to encourage doctors, especially
pediatricians, to educate their patients about suitable body weights.
Source: Diabetes In Control.Com.
January 2003 News Article Index
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