Health Tip – Audio Version - The third who don’t know
Health Tip – Healthy Next Step: About Diabetes and Pre-Diabetes (National Institutes of Health)

The fact that they have diabetes would be a surprise to a lot of people.

Researchers for the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention compared surveys from 1988 to 1994 with those from 1999 to 2002. They found signs of trouble – such as no change in undiagnosed cases.

CDC researcher Ed Gregg:

“About 9 percent of adults have diabetes. About 30 percent of those people who have diabetes don’t know they have the condition, however.”

And more than a quarter of Americans have prediabetes – meaning they could develop diabetes within 10 years.

So many people need to get checked for prediabetes or diabetes.

Losing a modest amount of weight by cutting calories or being more active can reduce the risk that pre-diabetes will develop into diabetes.

Health Tip courtesy of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Last revised: August, 15 2006