Description
The onset of type 2 diabetes is preceded by a clinical condition called pre-diabetes in almost all people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. People with pre-diabetes are at increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases which can be prevented by bringing about lifestyle modifications such as healthy diet, exercise and modest weight loss. As per the National Diabetes Fact Sheet 2007, in the year 2003-2006 about 25.9% of US population over the age of 20 years had impaired fasting glucose levels which means that about one fourth of the American adults or about 57 million people suffered from prediabetes. The latest figures given by the National Diabetes Fact Sheet 2011, show that about 79 million people aged 20 years or older have pre-diabetes. Studies suggest that about 25- 40% of individuals with pre-diabetes will go on to develop diabetes in the next 3-8 years. The purpose of this study was to investigate the association of factors like age, gender, race/ethnicity, body mass index (BMI) and smoking, education and insurance status on the prevalence of self-reported pre-diabetes among adult US population using the data from the 2008 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression was used to find the variables that were significantly associated with prevalence of self-reported pre-diabetes. As per the study findings people > 65 years of age, belonging to the high risk race and ethnicities like African American, Latino, Native American, Asian, American Indians, Pacific Islanders, having BMI > 30, and who are less educated and who have smoked at least 100 cigarettes in their life time were more likely to have self-reported pre-diabetes. If pre-diabetes is detected early, diabetes can be prevented by up to 58% by lifestyle modification only, like healthy diet and exercise and weight loss. Hence it is crucial to implement preventive measures and to create awareness in this high risk population to curb the rising numbers of people with diabetes in US population.
