DIABETES FACTS & FIGURES AMONG NATIVE AMERICANS

More than 107,000 Native Americans and Alaska Natives, or 14.5% of the population, receiving care from Indian Health Services (IHS) have diabetes. The most life-threatening consequences of diabetes are heart disease and stroke, which strike people with diabetes more than twice as often as they do others. Other complications include blindness, kidney disease, and amputations.

Diabetes is the fifth-deadliest disease in the United States, and it has no cure. The total annual economic cost of diabetes in 2002 was estimated to be $132 billion, or one out of every 10 health care dollars spent in the United States. Prevalence, on average, Native Americans are 2.2 times more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes as non-Hispanic whites of similar age. 107,775 Native Americans and Alaska Natives, or 14.5% of the population, receiving care from Indian Health Services (IHS) have diabetes. At the regional level, diabetes prevalence is 6.8% among Alaska Natives and 27% among Native Americans in the southeastern United States. One tribe in Arizona has the highest rate of diabetes in the world. About 50% of these adults between the ages of 30 and 64 have diabetes. Today, diabetes has reached epidemic proportions among Native Americans. Complications from diabetes are major causes of death and health problems in most Native American populations.

Source: American Diabetes Association