Nearly 10 percent of Americans have type 2 diabetes, CDC reports

A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed some alarming statistics - specifically, that about 10 percent of the U.S. population now has type 2 diabetes.

Moreover, nearly one-third of these people are undiagnosed, the 2014 National Diabetes Statistics Report stated.

The statistics were based on data collected between 2009 and 2012, in addition to national surveys.

High costs, diabetes hitting children

The study estimates that people with type 2 diabetes have medical costs that are 2.3 times higher than people without the condition, and total costs of the disease are about $245 billion.

People under 20 years old represented 1.7 million cases of new diabetes during the study period, and about 208,000 people younger than 20 have diagnosed diabetes.

People between the ages of 45 and 64 represented the most cases of type 2 diabetes, followed by people over 65 years old.

The report also reveals that pre-diabetes is a significant issues, as 37 percent of U.S adults over the age of 20 had pre-diabetes.

"Diabetes has increased dramatically. The rates have almost doubled since the late '80s and early '90s," said Elizabeth Selvin, lead study author and an associate professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, in Baltimore. "This study also highlights that the increase in diabetes really tracks closely with the epidemic of obesity. The diabetes epidemic is really a direct consequence of the rise in obesity."

Results of the study are published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Source:TIME, HealthDay
Image via hywards/FreeDigitalPhotos.net