The number of men in the United States with undiagnosed diabetes has declined sharply over the past 25 years, with Hispanics and African-Americans no longer more likely than whites to unknowingly have the disease, according to a RAND Corporation study issued Aug. 13. Study author James P. Smith found that in 1999-2002, about 20 percent of American men who had diabetes did not know they had the disease, in contrast to 25 years ago, when about half of the men with diabetes were undiagnosed.
Ethnic disparities among those with undiagnosed diabetes essentially disappeared during the same period, a sign that diabetes programs targeting minority groups have encouraged more people to get tested, according to the study, which appears in the August issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
On a less positive note, Smith found that while disparities in undiagnosed diabetes disappeared over the past 25 years, new disparities have developed based on education levels. Less-educated American males are now less likely to have their diabetes diagnosed than those men with more schooling. Read the press release.
