National Diabetes Awareness Month -- November 1997
November is National Diabetes Awareness Month. In the United
States, an estimated 15.7 million persons have diabetes;
approximately one third of the cases are undiagnosed (1). CDC
highlighted National Diabetes Awareness Month with the national
satellite broadcast, "Diabetes: Control is Prevention." The
broadcast emphasized increasing awareness of the impact of
diabetes, existing efforts to reduce the burden of diabetes, and
mobilizing communities to improve diabetes outcomes.
Additional activities will emphasize the new guidelines
regarding the diagnosis and classification of diabetes. These
guidelines were developed by an international Expert Committee on
the Diagnosis and Classification of Diabetes Mellitus, sponsored
by the American Diabetes Association (2); CDC recommends that
health-care providers use the new diagnostic and classification
criteria. The following major changes are included in the
committee's report:
Diagnosis. Lower the current fasting diagnostic criteria
from greater than or equal to 140 mg/dL of plasma glucose to
greater than or equal to 126 mg/dL, and eliminate the routine
clinical use of oral glucose tolerance tests, which are more
difficult and more expensive to perform than fasting glucose
tests. This change does not alter the criteria for gestational
diabetes mellitus.
Classification. Eliminate the terms "insulin-dependent
diabetes mellitus (IDDM)" and "non-insulin-dependent diabetes
mellitus (NIDDM)." Type 1 diabetes replaces IDDM or
juvenile-onset diabetes, and type 2 diabetes replaces NIDDM or
adult-onset diabetes. The other two types are "gestational
diabetes mellitus" and "other specific types," which includes
cases of hyperglycemia associated with specific genetic defects,
surgery, or drugs.
Additional information about diabetes is available from
CDC's Division of Diabetes Translation, National Center for
Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, 4770 Buford
Highway, N.E., Atlanta, GA 30341-3724, and from CDC's World-Wide
Web site, http://www.cdc.gov/diabetes, and other sites (3).
References
CDC. National diabetes fact sheet: national estimates and
general information on diabetes in the United States. Atlanta,
Georgia: US Department of Health and Human Services, CDC, 1997.
The Expert Committee on the Diagnosis and Classification of
Diabetes Mellitus. Report of the Expert Committee on the
Diagnosis and Classification of Diabetes Mellitus. Diabetes Care
1997;20:1183 97.
CDC. Diabetes information on the Internet. MMWR 1997;46:1027 --
8.
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