“The Diabetes Epidemic Is Continuing Unabated”

An estimated 25.8 million Americans, or 8.3% of the population, have diabetes and almost a third of those don’t know it, the CDC said. Another 79 million people have prediabetes, with high fasting glucose or HbA1c levels but not quite at the frank diabetes level, the agency said in its National Diabetes Fact Sheet. The estimates suggest the prevalence of the disease is rising: In 2008, the CDC estimated that 23.6 million Americans, or 7.8% of the population, had diabetes and another 57 million adults had prediabetes. For adults, diabetes rates were 16.1% percent for American Indians and Alaska Natives, compared with 12.6% for blacks, 11.8% for Hispanics, 8.4% for Asian Americans, and 7.1% for non-Hispanic whites.