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If whites, African Americans, Native Americans, and Hispanics all had the same
age-specific diabetes mortality rates as that of Asians and Pacific Islanders,
we would avoid 19,160 deaths each year. This represents a 31 percent decline in
diabetes deaths, and a saving of 360,774 years of life each year.
These differences are also stark when we look at not just deaths from
diabetes, but serious complications as well. These include kidney failure,
amputations of legs damaged by poor circulation, and blindness. We don’t have
reliable data on these complications for every racial and ethnic group, but we
do know that African Americans have a 4-fold higher risk of developing kidney
failure than whites, and a 3-fold higher risk for lower extremity amputations
than whites. (You may have seen the recent special on Ella Fitzgerald, from
which I learned that she had both legs amputated because of complications from
diabetes.) |
