 More than half of Asian Americans with diabetes are undiagnosed 
 
 New statistics also show rising prevalence of diabetes among all groups 
 
 More than half of Asian Americans and nearly half of Hispanic Americans with diabetes are undiagnosed, according to researchers from the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Their results were published Sept. 8 in JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association . Diabetes was most common among older adults — about one in three adults age 65 and over had the condition in 2011-2012, compared to 17 percent of adults ages 45 to 64, and 5 percent of adults younger than 45. The age-standardized prevalence of total diabetes (using the hemoglobin A 1c or FPG definition) increased from 9.8% (95% CI, 8.9%-10.6%) in 1988-1994 to 10.8% (95% CI, 9.5%-12.0%) in 2001-2002 to 12.4% (95% CI, 10.8%-14.2%) in 2011-2012 (P < .001 for trend) and increased significantly in every age group, in both sexes, in every racial/ethnic group, by all education levels, and in all poverty income ratio tertiles. Using newly available 2011-2012 data from the CDC’s National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), researchers were able to quantify diabetes prevalence for Asian Americans for the first time and found that they have the highest proportion of diabetes that was undiagnosed among all ethnic and racial subgroups studied, at 51 percent. The percentage of people with undiagnosed diabetes was particularly high among Asian Americans — about 50 percent of Asian Americans with diabetes were not aware they had the condition, according to the study. About one-third of whites with diabetes (32 percent) did not know they had the condition, compared to 37 percent of blacks, 49 percent of Hispanics and 51 percent of Asian Americans. One reason for the high percentage of undiagnosed diabetes among Asian Americans may be that people in this ethnic group often develop type 2 diabetes at a lower body mass index (BMI) than people of other ethnic groups. Between 1988-1994 and 2011-2012, the prevalence of diabetes increased in the overall population and in all subgroups evaluated. The American Diabetes Association recommends Asian Americans get tested for diabetes at a BMI of 23 or higher, a lower BMI threshold than the general population. “The large proportion of people with undiagnosed diabetes points to both a greater need to test for type 2 diabetes and a need for more education on when to test for type 2 diabetes, especially since populations such as Asian Americans may develop type 2 at a lower body mass than other groups,” said the study’s senior author, Catherine Cowie, Ph.D., director of diabetes epidemiology programs at the NIH’s National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). In the new study, the researchers analyzed information from more than 26,000 U.S. adults who took part in surveys between 1988 and 2012. Conclusions and Relevance In 2011-2012, the estimated prevalence of diabetes was 12% to 14% among US adults, depending on the criteria used, with a higher prevalence among participants who were non-Hispanic black, non-Hispanic Asian, and Hispanic. Most cases of diabetes are type 2, in which the body's cells stop responding to the hormone insulin, which results in a buildup of sugar in the bloodstream. In type 2 diabetes — the most common type, which has increased along with the obesity epidemic — the body does not make or use insulin well. The condition also increases people's risk of heart disease and stroke and, if left untreated, can cause complications including nerve damage, kidney failure and blindness. "By learning more about who has diabetes — and who has the disease but does not know it — we can better target research and prevention efforts," Dr. Griffin Rodgers, director of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), said in a statement. "We have treatments to help people with diabetes, but treatments can only help those who have been diagnosed." This study supports the Healthy People 2020 goal of increasing the diagnosis of diabetes among those with the disease.
– More than half of all adult Americans have diabetes or prediabetes—a condition marked by abnormally high blood sugar levels—according to a study published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Live Science reports survey results between 2011 and 2012 showed more than 12% of US residents over the age of 18 had diabetes—that's up from less than 10% in 1988—and another 38% had prediabetes. The numbers are worst for Americans over 65, a full one-third of whom have diabetes. Perhaps even more alarming, more than one-third of US adults with the disease—which can cause blindness, heart disease, kidney failure, and death—don't know they have it. More than half of Asian Americans and nearly half of Hispanic Americans with diabetes are undiagnosed, according to a press release from the National Institutes of Health. Live Science reports Asian Americans may have so many cases of undiagnosed diabetes because they develop it at a lower BMI than other ethnic groups, which means doctors may not be screening Asian Americans who have the disease but don't appear obese. “By learning more about who has diabetes—and who has the disease but does not know it—we can better target research and prevention efforts,” says the director of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases in the press release. “We have treatments to help people with diabetes, but treatments can only help those who have been diagnosed."