SOUTHWEST PUBLIC HEALTH DISTRICT PRESS RELEASE:

Diabetes is on the rise throughout the country, and the 14 counties in
Southwest Health District are among those seeing the highest percentages of adults developing the disease.

“New national surveillance data from the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention reveal that diabetes now affects nearly 24 million people
in the United States,” said Southwest Health District Health Director
Dr. Jacqueline Grant. “That’s an increase of more than 3 million
over a span of about two years. To put it another way, almost 8 percent of the U.S. population has the disease.”

The highest rates of diabetes in the American population are found in
Southern states. In Georgia, the percentage of adults diagnosed with
diabetes jumped from 4.6 in 1994 to 10.4 in 2006.
“Georgia’s rate is the second-highest, surpassed only by
Mississippi,” Grant said. “And Southwest Georgia’s numbers are
some of the highest in the state. An estimated 10.3 percent of the
adults in Lee County have diabetes, according to the CDC. And Lee County
has the lowest percentage of all of our counties.”
Calhoun and Dougherty counties have the highest percentages, with 13.5
and 13.4 respectively. The percentages are calculated using age-adjusted
estimates from 2007 data, the most recent numbers available.
Blacks are disproportionately affected by diabetes, with the highest
prevalence found among African American women, the CDC reported.
Diabetes can lead to serious complications - such as blindness,
amputations, cardiovascular disease, kidney damage and death - but
people with diabetes can control the disease and reduce the risk of
complications through diet, exercise and medication, Grant said.
“The risk of death among people with diabetes is about twice that of
people of the same age who do not have diabetes,” she said. “But by
exchanging unhealthy behaviors for healthy behaviors, people with
diabetes can significantly improve their health status and their quality
of life.”

Further, people with prediabetes can reduce or delay development of
diabetes by losing weight and increasing physical activity. “The
Diabetes Prevention Program, a large prevention study of people at high
risk for diabetes, showed that lifestyle intervention reduced developing
diabetes by 58 percent during a three-year period,” said Grant.
Prediabetes is a condition in which blood glucose levels are higher
than normal but not high enough to be classified as diabetes. People
with prediabetes have an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes,
heart disease, and stroke.

“Talk to your county health department or private healthcare provider
about your risk of diabetes,” Grant recommended. “Many people have
no signs or symptoms. Others have symptoms that are so mild they don’t notice them. Learning your health status is the first step toward
staying healthy.”

For a state-by-state, county-by-county look at diabetes
statistics, go online to www.cdc.gov/diabetes/statistics/newDataTrends.
Information on diabetes prevention is available from your county health
department or by going online to www.southwestgeorgiapublichealth.