Source: Native News Network
ATLANTA – Researchers have figured out how much a person with type 2 diabetes can expect to pay over a lifetime. At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, Xiaohui Zhuo ran a computer model based on national data.
Here’s what he found:
“Persons with diabetes pay on average over $85,000 treating the disease over his or her lifetime.”
This includes treatment for diabetes such as insulin, and treatment for conditions that grow from diabetes, such as kidney disease, heart disease and stroke.
Unfortunately, American Indians and Alaska Natives have alarming statistics when it comes to diabetes. American Indians and Alaska Natives have the highest prevalence of diabetes among all United States racial and ethnic groups, according the Indian Health Service.
The following statistics relating to diabetes among American Indians and Alaska Natives are staggering:
- 2.3 times higher – Likelihood of American Indian/Alaska Native adults to have diagnosed diabetes compared to non-Hispanic whites;
- 9 times higher – Likelihood of American Indian/Alaska Native youth aged 10-19 to have diagnosed type 2 diabetes compared to non-Hispanic whites;
- 1.9 times higher – Incidence rate of kidney failure due to diabetes in American Indian/Alaska Natives compared to the general United States population and
- 1.6 time higher – Death rate due to diabetes for American Indian/Alaska Natives compared with the general United States population.
Even with the dismal statistics, Type 2 diabetes is preventable and can be managed through eating healthier meals and increasing physical activity.