Diabetes Rates Are Higher Along Our Borders

Survey found the rate of diabetes was 15.7 percent among adults. The prevalence of diabetes among adults along the U.S.-Mexico border is higher that previous studies have indicated. That is not Borderline Diabetes!

The survey found the rate of diabetes was 15.7 percent among adults, which is more than 3 percent higher than previous studies, said Dr. Joxel Garcia, deputy director of the Pan American Health Organization.

"We had some perceptions about the prevalence of diabetes and now we know the reality of what is happening on the border," he said in a telephone interview.

This is higher than the comparable 13.9-percent rate of diabetes in the United States and 14.9-percent rate in Mexico, the report said.

The significance of the new finding is that it means there are from 240,000 to 250,000 more people with diabetes in the region than earlier believed. More than 8 million people reside along both sides of the 2,000-mile border that was surveyed.

The study also found the rate of obese and overweight adults along the border is more than 75 percent, compared to a rate of 62 percent in the United States.

Although genetic factors are involved in diabetes, obesity contributes to the disease. More than three-quarters of those surveyed on each side of the border were overweight.

The study is the first of its kind to study the prevalence of diabetes in a border region anywhere in the world, said Garcia, whose agency is an arm of the World Health Organization. The U.S.-Mexico study will be a model for future research in other regions around the globe.

More than 4,000 people were questioned for the study, the most exhaustive survey conducted along the border. Researchers collected blood samples and height and weight measures from each person. Nearly 3,000 of the subjects were women and they ranged in age from 18 to over 60.

The sample was almost evenly divided from each side of the U.S.-Mexico border, and about 88 percent of those surveyed were Hispanic. Diabetes is found more frequently among that demographic group, according to health experts.

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DID YOU KNOW:

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