diabetes statistics

Time to update my diabetes statistics.....

18,000,000 people diagnosed with diabetes
7,000,000 people are undiagnosed
79,000,000 people have prediabetes (?????)
1,900,000 new cases of diabetes diagnosed in adults in 2010
1 in every 400 kids have type 1 diabetes
27% of all people over age 65 have diabetes

in 2007, diabetes contributed to 231,404 deaths.

Complications of diabetes include:
heart disease 68% and stroke 16%
hight blood pressure - 67% of those with diabetes
blindness - 28% of people over 40 with diabetes had diabetic retinopathy, with 5% having severe vision loss
kidney disease - in 2008, 44,378 people with diabetes entered ESRD, with 202,290 living on dialysis
neuropathy - 70% of people with diabetes
amputation - in 2006, 65,700 lower-limb amputations in people with diabetes

People with diabetes ages 60 or older are 2-3 times more likely to report an inability to walk one-quarter of a mile, climb stairs, or do housework, compared with people without diabetes in the same age group.

People with diabetes are twice as likely to have depression.

Every percentage point drom in A1C blood test results (eg from 8.0 to 7.0) can reduce the risk of microvascular complications by 40%.

For every 10 mmHg reduction in systolic blod pressure, the risk for any complication related to diabetes is reduced by 12%

33% of disabled adults live in a household with an annual income of less than $15,000 in 1997.

Improved control of LDL (bad chlesterol) can reduce cardiovascular complications by 20 - 50%

80% of couples with one spouse with diabetes end up in divorce (and it may be higher than that).

Diabetes is the SEVENTH leading cause of death in the United States

Yet if you talk to a diabetic....they will say....."diabetes is not a problem for me, I have it under control."

Hmmmmm........

Now, I realize that you can make statistics say anything you want. Thus I merely pulled numbers off different websites and will allow you to draw your own conclusions.  But my thoughts are that the death rate is probably a whole lot higher than reported. If my hubby has a heart attack, that will be what they put on his death certificate.  They won't put down diabetes as the cause of death.....but that is what has caused his heart disease for sure.

They don't write about the diabetics who are divorced, who live alone, who require homecare visits to attend to their needs.

They don't write about the high rate of depression. How many diabetics commit suicide each year?  So there are a lot of studies that don't get done and statitics probably look better than they would.

If 68% of all diabetics have heart disease, is it then only the 32% that do not have it who are writing their angry comments to me?  LOL!!!

If 70% of all diabetics have neuropathy.....it has to be the 30% that don't have it that are in their 20s, maybe 30s, and think they have no problems with their diabetes?

Or is it denial?  My husband has high blood pressure. He is in that 67%.  He takes medicine to control it.  It is in good control, it is never high, in fact, it tends to run a little low.  So if you ask him if he has high blood pressure, he will say "no".  He is in complete denial about the medicine he takes to control it. He only looks at the bp numbers they read at the doctor's office.  As of late, every time he has told someone that he does not have hbp, I correct him.  In public.  In front of him.  I will no longer tolerate his denial.  He can do it in private....but not in front of me.

But I wonder if other diabetics have the same "denial".  Their A1C is good....so they don't have a glucose problem? Their vision is corrected with laser surgery, glasses, contacts....so they don't have a "vision" problem.  From the diabetics I know (excluding hubby) most of them will tell me things just like this.  I think the biggest one is that they don't have any problems with depression.  They you find out they are taking some type of medication to control that issue.

Statistics are great because they make us be honest.  If 67% of all diabetics have high blood pressure....then most likely your diabetic spouse has it as well!  What these statistice do for me is tell me that I am not alone.  If 18 million people are diagnosed with diabetes and 79 million more have pre-diabetes, and if we assume that 59% of the population is married.....then there are at least 57 million spouses or significant others out there who live with a person who has diabetes.  I am not alone!

So, if 57 million spouses live with this disease and let's round down and say only 50% of their spouses have complications, that's 27.5 million spouses like me.

There are so many other questions.  What is the % of people on dialysis who are divorced?  Is it lower because at that point you stay with them to get the life insurance?

Anyone can write anything. Anyone can do a study and come up with a percentage statistic based on a representative poll of a given population.  What really matters is what we experience in our day-to-day life living with someone who has diabetes.  Knowing that even if they do keep it in control, they will eventually become one of these statistices.  The stats are not going down....they are trending upwards over time.  Which would mean to me that even if a diabetic is in good control, evenually, they are going to have multiple complications.

That's the MBA in me! (Have I confessed that I have an MBA degree?)   I love playing with numbers, reports, graphs.  My problem is that most of the "professionals" who write this stuff have zero experience living with the disease themselves.

But the "wife of a diabetic" in me is very realistic and I know that while he is in denial....I know what his future is.  And because of that, I will continue to work hard to make the time we have together as good as we can make it.  Knowing every moment that I can still chose to leave - and that's how I stay sane through all that happens to him.

DW