Prevent Diabetes STAT is intended to be a multiyear program. It represents an expansion of previous efforts undertaken individually by the CDC and AMA to combat the growing diabetes epidemic. In 2012, the CDC created the National Diabetes Prevention Program, using data from the National Institutes of Health, to create a framework of more than 500 programs designed to help people with diabetes institute meaningful lifestyle changes. The AMA launched a similar initiative in 2013 known as Improving Health Outcomes, which included partnering with YMCAs around the country to refer at-risk youths to diabetes prevention programs recognized by the CDC.
“We have seen significant progress, but we’ve really got to be sure that we get this [diabetes initiative] to a larger number of people,” said Dr. Albright. “We need to allow this to be scaled nationally [by] taking the successes that we’ve had and the lessons that we’ve learned, [but] in order to do that, people have to receive a diagnosis of prediabetes so that they can get connected to these services.”
According to the AMA, there are currently more than 86 million individuals in the United States living with prediabetes, yet roughly 90% of those people don’t even know they have it. The CDC estimates that the number of individuals diagnosed with diabetes in the United States more than tripled from 1980 to 2011, going from 5.6 million to nearly 21 million in just over 30 years. In 2011, 19.6 million American adults were diagnosed with diabetes; right now, according to the AMA and CDC, more than 33% of American adults are living with prediabetes.