Diabetes Mellitus Statistics
So before we begin to define diabetes as a disease, let's just talk about some of the statistics. About 8% of the United States population has diabetes, and of those 8%, about 5% to 10% of those cases are type 1, and we'll talk about the differences between type 1 and type 2, but the majority of cases are type 2 diabetes; 90% to 95% of the cases of those 8% are type 2 diabetes. Diabetes affects people of all ages and all racial groups, although not necessarily in an equal manner, because there are higher rates for African Americans compared to Caucasian Americans, for example. We also know that with diabetes the risk of heart disease, death from heart disease, is 2 to 4 times higher for people with diabetes compared to adults without diabetes, so diabetes has complications not just in and of itself, but also for developing heart disease. And finally, we know that diabetes costs our nation a lot of money. The costs exceeded $174 billion in 2007, and as we'll see, those costs continue to increase, and that cost includes both direct costs of the disease as well as indirect costs such as lost productivity.