Diabetes: An Opportunity for Population Health Improvement

Diabetes is a national health epidemic. According to the Diabetes Advocacy Alliance, by 2025, 53.1 million Americans will have diabetes — a 63 percent increase from the number with diabetes today. Also, the cost of diabetes is projected to rise to $514 billion in 2025, which represents an increase of 72 percent from today’s figures and is comparable to the entire Medicare budget for 2010. Presently, nearly 30 million children and adults — 10 percent of the population — have diabetes.

The April edition of HIDI HealthStats investigated how diabetes affects Missouri communities differently. The research identified high diabetes rates among low sociodemographic status communities. However, diabetes isn’t exclusively a disease for poor individuals or communities — the disease is universal.

The increasing rate of diabetes is not inevitable. However, reducing the rate of diabetes will require a better understanding of patient and population risks, and a more integrated and intensive clinical approach to deliver the right interventions to the right patients at the right time.

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Trajectories is a quarterly publication of MHA focusing on progress in quality and population health efforts.