Issue 144 Item 15 Diabetes Deaths in Los Angeles County Jump 50% in a Decade

The findings, reported Thursday at a meeting of the American College of Preventive Medicine in San Diego, were extrapolated from a review of death certificates of Los Angeles County residents from 1990-2000.

Dr. Jonathan Fielding, director of public health at the Los Angeles Department of Health Services said, “Increasing obesity is the major factor driving the escalating rates of diabetes in Los Angeles and across the nation.”

"We're going to see more increases in diabetes, as well as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and heart disease."

Some racial disparities were observed. Compared with whites and Asians/Pacific Islanders, the risk of dying from diabetes was more than two times higher for blacks and one-and-a-half times higher for Latinos.

To help curb diabetes and other major killers, Dr. Fielding said, physicians need to "continue to focus on prevention" and "work harder in partnership with their patients to get good levels of compliance."

It's critical that doctors treating diabetics try to minimize heart disease risk factors, such as smoking and high cholesterol, he added.