Posted on Categories Utah Women and Health Risk Factors / Lois Bloebaum, BSN, MPA ↓

Women and Diabetes

Background

Diabetes has reached epidemic proportions in the U.S., with almost 21 million Americans (7.0% of the U.S. population) having diabetes. While there is little gender difference in the prevalence of diabetes among the U.S. adult population (10.5% for males and 8.8% for females), there are important reasons to place a women’s health emphasis on the disease.[1] Women generally play the primary role in food choices and preparation for their families; therefore prevention efforts focused on women may impact other family members. Women are also at risk of developing gestational diabetes which can affect pregnancy outcomes. Women who are diagnosed with gestational diabetes have an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes later in life.

How are we doing? (Utah data versus the U.S.)

The prevalence of diabetes has increased, both nationally and in Utah. Several factors contribute to the rise including increasing rates of obesity and sedentary lifestyles, improvement in medical care of people with diabetes leading to longer a lifespan, changing population demographics, and, finally, a 1997 change in the key diagnostic criterion (fasting blood glucose >126mg/dl) which has contributed to an increased number of people who were clinically diagnosed. According to Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance data, an estimated total of 5.9 million adult women (aged 18 or older) in the U.S. have been diagnosed with diabetes. In Utah, approximately 42,000 adult women have been diagnosed with diabetes. The percentage of adult women in Utah compared to the U.S. adult women is depicted in the Figure 1. While the rate in Utah remains less than the national rates, it has increased over the past decade and is cause for concern.

Figure 1

Risk Factors

Anyone can develop diabetes, but the risk is greater for those who are older, overweight or obese, physically inactive, or members of a minority racial or ethnic group. According to the American Diabetes Association, 9.7 million or 8.8% of all women aged 20 years or older have diabetes although nearly one third of them do not know it. The prevalence of diabetes is at least 2 to 4 times higher among non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic/Latino American, American Indian, and Asian/Pacific Islander women than among non-Hispanic white women. The prevalence of Hispanic/Latino Americans in Utah has risen considerably over the past 2 decades and undoubtedly will increase rates of diabetes in the state.

The highest rates of diabetes are seen in American Indian and Alaska Native persons. The American Diabetes Association reports that 99,500, or 12.8% of American Indians and Alaska Natives aged 20 years or older who received care from IHS in 2003 had diagnosed diabetes. Taking into account population age differences, American Indians and Alaska Natives are 2.2 times as likely to have diabetes as non-Hispanic whites.[2]

What is being done to address this problem?

A large multi-center study, The Diabetes Primary Prevention (DPP) study which was funded through a wide partnership of federal agencies showed that weight loss and participation in regular physical activity can decrease the risk for diabetes.[3] The DPP trial studied over 3,000 people who already  had impaired fasting glucose and  were therefore at an increased risk for developing diabetes. The study found that participants who engaged in moderately intense physical activity for 30 minutes per day and lost five to seven percent of their body weight decreased their risk of diabetes by 58 percent.

The Utah Department of Health’s Diabetes Prevention and Control Program strives to increase public awareness of the warning signs, symptoms, and risk factors for developing diabetes. In addition, the program also promotes improved management of diabetes for those already diagnosed through various media campaigns.

References

  1. Diabetes Prevalence. Retrieved on April 23, 2007 from Utah Department of Health, Center for Health Data Indicator-Based Information System for Public Health website: http://ibis.health.utah.gov/indicator/complete_profile/DiabPrev.html
  2. Total Prevalence of Diabetes and Pre-Diabetes. Retrieved on April 23, 2007 from American Diabetes Association website:
    http://www.diabetes.org/diabetes-statistics/prevalence.jsp
  3. Diet and Exercise Dramatically Delay Type 2 Diabetes: Diabetes Medication Metformin Also Effective. Retrieved on April 23, 2007 from the National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health website: http://www.niddk.nih.gov/welcome/releases/8_8_01.htm
Posted on Categories Issue / UWHR ↓

Utah’s Health: An Annual Review | June 2007

Acknowledgements

Thank you to all the Department of Health personnel who provided assistance to many authors in locating data for their reports.

Thank you to Dean Jannah H. Mather, Ph.D. of the College of Social Work for making Ms. Grundvig available to this project.

Thank you to Dr. Richard Sperry for his support of this project.

Posted on Categories From the Editor / Patricia Aikins Murphy, CNM, DrPH ↓

Editor’s Note, 2007

We are pleased to release this special supplement on women’s health in Utah as part of the 12th volume of Utah’s Health: An Annual Review: Special Supplement on Women’s Health in Utah. The editorial board and contributors represent an interdisciplinary group of students, faculty, researchers from the University of Utah, personnel from the Utah Department of Health, and interested advocates for women’s health. This special supplement speaks to the interest in and dedication to women’s health that can be found within our state.

This supplement has three sections:

Original Research and Reviews touch on a variety of topics that impact women’s health, from obesity to prescription drug use to headaches and reproductive health issues.

The Special Topics section addresses the impact of immigrants on the health care system. Because data on women immigrants and their impact on the state’s health care system are difficult to find, this paper is not specific to the women of Utah. However it provides background that can easily be extrapolated to suggest the effects of immigration within the state. Information about the health of refugee women is similarly difficult to obtain; the brief data page represents initial efforts to collate information from a variety of agencies serving this community in Utah. We hope that this preliminary presentation of issues and data will encourage interested parties in the state to begin the process of collecting comprehensive data to address this topic.

The Women’s Health Data Reports look at a variety of topics that reflect women’s health concerns. We have tried in assembling these pages to go beyond typical emphasis on physical health conditions and have also included aspects of social health that impact Utah women’s lives. Some important topics, such as osteoporosis and bone health, are missing because of the difficulty in finding data to describe them. Others may be missing because of limitations of space and authorship; such topics will be periodically addressed on the University of Utah National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health Demonstration Project’s website at http://uuhsc.utah.edu/coe/womenshealth/.

Many deserve credit for this effort. It would not have been possible without the successful partnership between the University of Utah National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health Demonstration Project and the Utah Department of Health, the hard work of the editorial board, and the dedication of the contributors. We are grateful to the editorial board of Utah’s Health: An Annual Review for the opportunity to provide our women’s health supplement for this year’s review.

We hope to continue this work on a regular basis, and plan future volumes that will address specific issues in women’s health, such as health of Latina and Native American women, as well as special topics such as aging and adolescent health.