The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Minority Health states that 3.2 million Latino adults are living with diabetes which is 13 percent of the overall Latino population in this country. Latinos are 1.7 times as likely to have diabetes as Anglos are, according to HHS. In addition, diabetes caused deaths among Latinos versus non-Hispanic whites are 50 percent higher in recent years.
“Rates of diabetes among Hispanic kids have outpaced other groups both in Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes – something we’ve never seen before and indicative of something we should take seriously,” study author Dana Dabelea, MD, PhD, a professor at the University of Colorado in Denver said while presenting his study findings, NBC Latino reported.
Adults are not the only ones affected with this disease. The number of Latino children and youth under 20 years of age diagnosed with diabetes is the fastest of any ethnic group in the United States.
The Latino youth diabetes epidemic is well known and programs are being introduced to assist this growing problem. An example is The Let’s Move initiative launched by First Lady Michelle Obama which is dedicated to solving the challenge of childhood obesity. “If we don’t solve this problem, one third of all children born in 2000 or later will suffer from diabetes at some point in their lives.”
Throughout the years the amount of people around the world diagnosed with diabetes has increased. An estimated 382 million people around the world are now living with diabetes.
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