Processing Your Payment

Please do not leave this page until complete. This can take a few moments.

April 29, 2024

1 in 10 CT adults have diabetes

By José Luis Martínez and Kat Struhar, CT Mirror

Estimates released last month by the Connecticut Department of Public Health show that 10.7% of Connecticut adults had diagnosed diabetes in 2022, down from 10.8% the previous year but up from 8.3% in 2013. The estimates are likely an underestimate, officials say, since many people go undiagnosed.

 

That one in 10 figure amounts to 309,000 adults in the state who have diagnosed diabetes.

Across all states, Connecticut’s rate of diabetes is lower than the national average, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC's survey and methodology differs from what state researchers did, so the numbers may vary from year to year.

 

Researchers who analyzed the state survey data noted that the results don’t distinguish between the types of diabetes, while prediabetes and gestational diabetes are excluded from the findings. Other limitations include the fact that the survey responses are self-reported, are subject to the respondent's memory, their understanding of the question, bias and willingness to answer honestly.

Obese adults and those with no leisure time physical activity were twice as likely to have diabetes than adults who weren't classified as obese or who had physical activity.

The disparities follow other demographic factors, such as educational attainment. Adults who didn't complete high school were more than twice as likely to have diabetes than college educated residents.

 

As for racial disparities, Black residents had the highest rates of diabetes at 15%, compared to 13% for Hispanics and 9% for white residents.

And of those over 65 years old, one in five had diabetes, compared to not even 3% for adults under 44 years old.

Almost one in five people, 19.3%, who made less than $25,000 a year had diabetes in 2022. Meanwhile, only 7% of those who made more than $75,000 had diabetes. Researchers do note that this is one of the variables that sees decreased disparities when doing a statistical analysis that removes the influence of any other social or demographic factor, like age, that could affect the rates. In this case, higher income is associated with older age, so the prevalence of diabetes will be higher for those with more money.

The same analysis to limit the influence of other factors was performed on other groups, and the results revealed increased odds only for the racial groupings, mainly attributed to age distributions for Black And Hispanic adults being lower than white adults.

State researchers found that disparities have remained fairly consistent.

“These results highlight the need to concentrate type 2 diabetes prevention and diabetes management efforts in communities with populations at highest risk and to address social and individual factors. Furthermore, promoting the diagnosis of diabetes at younger ages should be emphasized.”

Sign up for Enews

Most Recent

Most Recent

0 Comments

Order a PDF