Endocrinologists say 57 million Americans should be treated for prediabetes

doi:10.1136/bmj.a998

Published 25 July 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a998
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a998

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Endocrinologists say 57 million Americans should be treated for prediabetes

Janice Hopkins Tanne

¹ New York

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Some 57 million US residents have prediabetes, and almost 24million, 8% of the population, already have diabetes, says theAmerican Association of Clinical Endocrinologists.

Speaking at a meeting in Washington, DC, on 23 July, the endocrinologistssaid that doctors need to identify people with prediabetes andtreat them by recommending changes to lifestyle, such as dietand exercise, and prescribing drugs if necessary. Otherwisethe human and financial cost would be huge, they warned.

In a consensus statement they said that prediabetes "raisesshort term absolute risk of type 2 diabetes five to sixfold."Complications of diabetes begin early in the progression fromnormal glucose tolerance to diabetes, and some people with prediabetesalready have microvascular changes and end organ damage.

Most of these people have not had diabetes diagnosed, and primarycare doctors will need to identify and treat most of them, thepanel said.

People with prediabetes . . . [Full text of this article]

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