African American women are at more than 2 times higher risk when compared with white women
African American women and African American men are more likely to develop type 2 diabetes (adult-onset diabetes) than their white counterparts, according to an article in the May 3 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
Frederick L. Brancati, MD, MHS, from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and colleagues compared the number of African American and white participants who developed diabetes among 12,107 participants in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study who did not have diabetes at the baseline evaluation. The researchers found that, during 9 years of follow-up, the number of new cases of type 2 diabetes for the study participants was about 2.4 times greater for African American women than white women. For African American men the number of new cases was about 1.5 times greater than white men.
The researchers found that potentially modifiable risk factors for diabetes, particularly being overweight, accounted for 47.8 percent of the excess risk for African American women, but accounted for little of the excess risk in African American men. The researchers also found that on average African American women in the study had higher blood pressure than white women and African American men had on average higher blood pressure than white men at the baseline evaluation (before the onset of diabetes).
"Our study has several implications," the authors write. "It supports the notion that almost half of the excess risk of type 2 diabetes in African American women might be attenuated by prevention strategies aimed at weight reduction, dietary modification, and increased physical activity. It also suggests high blood pressure in the prediabetic state as a potential target for interventions designed to reduce the excess risk of microvascular complications in African Americans with diabetes."
According to background information in the study, "Diabetes mellitus imposes a major burden on the public health of the United States, leading annually to more than 300,000 deaths and about $100 billion in total costs. Approximately 90 percent of diabetic Americans are classified as having type 2 diabetes."
Editor's Note: This study was supported under contracts with the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Dr. Brancati was initially supported by a Career Development Award from the American Diabetes Association and later by an Established Investigator Grant from the American Heart Association.
Media Advisory: To contact Frederick L. Brancati, MD, MHS, call Karen Infeld at 410-955-1534.
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