How many African Americans have diabetes?
Figure 1 shows the prevalence for African American men and women based on the NHANES III survey conducted in 1988-94.3 The proportion of the African American population that has diabetes rises from less than 1 percent for those aged younger than 20 years to as high as 32 percent for women age 65-74 years. Overall, among those age 20 years or older, the rate is 11.8 percent for women and 8.5 percent for men.
About one-third of total diabetes cases are undiagnosed among African Americans. This is similar to the proportion for other racial/ethnic groups in the United States.3
National health surveys during the past 35 years show that the percentage of the African American population that has been diagnosed with diabetes is increasing dramatically.4 The surveys in 1976-80 and in 1988-94 measured fasting plasma glucose and thus allowed an assessment of the prevalence of undiagnosed diabetes as well as of previously diagnosed diabetes. In 1976-80, total diabetes prevalence in African Americans ages 40 to 74 years was 8.9 percent; in 1988-94, total prevalence had increased to 18.2 percent--a doubling of the rate in just 12 years.3
How does diabetes affect African American children?
African American children seem to have lower rates of type 1 diabetes than white American children. Researchers tend to agree that genetics probably makes type 1 diabetes less common among children with African ancestry compared with children of European ancestry. However, recent reports indicate an increasing prevalance of type 2 diabetes in children, especially in those with African American, American Indian, or Hispanic family background.10
How does diabetes affect African American women during pregnancy?
Gestational diabetes, in which blood glucose values are elevated above normal during pregnancy, occurs in about 2 percent to 5 percent of all pregnant women. Perinatal problems such as macrosomia (large body size) and neonatal hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) are higher in these pregnancies. The women generally return to normal glucose values after childbirth. However, once a woman has had gestational diabetes, she has an increased risk of developing gestational diabetes in future pregnancies. In addition, experts estimate that about half of women with gestational diabetes develop type 2 diabetes within 20 years of the pregnancy.
Several studies have shown that the occurrence of gestational diabetes in African American women may be 50 percent to 80 percent more frequent than in white women.