Fact Sheets

Diabetes:
An Epidemic Among African Americans

What is diabetes?

Diabetes is a chronic metabolic disease in which the body does not produce or properly use insulin, a hormone that is needed to convert sugar, starches and other food into energy.

How many African Americans have diabetes?

• Over 2.2 million African Americans in the U.S. have diabetes; 1.5 million have been diagnosed and 730,00 have not yet been diagnosed.
• There are 4 times as many African Americans diagnosed with diabetes today as there were in 1968.
• For every 6 white Americans who have diabetes, 10 African Americans have the disease.
• Among African Americans 20 years and older, the prevalence of diabetes is 8.2 percent compared with 4.8 percent among non-Hispanic whites.
• In 2000, approximately 140,000 African Americans in California were diagnosed with diabetes, which is about 2 times the prevalence of diagnosed whites.

What is the prevalence by type of diabetes?

• Type 1 diabetes accounts for 5 to 10 percent of all cases.
• Type 2 diabetes accounts for 90 to 95 percent of all cases.

What is the prevalence of diabetes by gender?

• In every age group the prevalence of diabetes is higher among African American women than among African American men.
• Among African Americans 20 years or older, 11.8 percent of women and 8.5 percent of men have diabetes.
• Nearly one out of three African American women ages 65 to 74 years has diabetes.

What is the prevalence by age?

• Diabetes is particularly common among middle-aged and older African Americans.
• The proportion of the African American population that has diabetes rises from less than 1 percent for those younger than 20 years old to as high as 32 percent for women ages 65 to 74 years old.
• 28 percent of women and 19 percent of men ages 50 and older have diabetes.

• In just 12 years, national health surveys show that diabetes’ prevalence for African Americans ages 40-74 has doubled from 8.9 percent in 1976-1980 to 18.2 percent in 1988-1994.
• In the 1998-1994 National Health and Nutrition Survey (NHANES III), 11.2 percent of whites ages 40 to 74 years had diabetes compared with 18.2 percent of blacks.

What is the death rate for diabetes among African Americans?

• Death rates for people with diabetes are 27 percent higher for blacks compared with whites.
• Diabetes is the fifth leading cause of death for those ages 45 years or older.

How do diabetes-related complications affect African Americans?

• African Americans with diabetes are more likely to develop diabetes complications and experience greater disability from the complications than whites.
• The frequency of diabetic retinopathy is 40 to 50 percent higher in African Americans than in white Americans.
• African Americans with diabetes experience kidney failure (also called end-stage renal disease) about 4 times more often than diabetic white Americans. In 1995, there were 27, 258 new cases of kidney failure attributed to diabetes in black Americans.

• African Americans are much more likely to undergo a lower-extremity amputation than white or Hispanic Americans with diabetes. In 1994, there were 13,000 amputations among black people with diabetes, involving 155,000 days in the hospital.

What can African Americans with diabetes do to prevent these complications?

• The chances of having diabetes complications can be reduced or delayed significantly by keeping blood sugar levels under control.
• People with diabetes should try to keep their blood sugar level at less than 7 percent as measured by the hemoglobin A1c test. This simple lab test gives the best picture of blood sugar control over a 3-month period and should be done at least twice per year for all people with diabetes.
• People with diabetes can control the disease by eating the right amounts of a variety of foods, getting regular physical activity, taking diabetes medicine as prescribed, and monitoring blood sugar levels.
• For free information about diabetes control, people with diabetes can call 1-800-438-5383 or visit the National Diabetes Education Program’s web sites at http://ndep.nih.gov or http://www.cdc.gov/diabetes.

Sources: Diabetes in African Americans Fact Sheet, National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, NIH Publication No. 98-3266, June 1998. The Burden of Diabetes in California Counties, Diabetes Control Program, Department of Health Services, January 2000.

QUALITY ASSURANCE PROJECT

For more information about controlling your diabetes call the California Black Health Network, at 619/295-5413 or visit the program’s web site at http://www.cbhn.org

If you would like to become a partner of QUALITY ASSURANCE PROJECT and help spread the word about diabetes in your community, call 619/295-5413 or check our web site at www.cbhn.org.