Diabetes Incidence Rising Among Young Adults

(HealthDay News) — By 2010, one in every 10 visits Americans made to their doctor’s office involved diabetes, with the greatest rise among those aged 25 to 44 years, according to a data brief published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics.

Overall, the researchers found that office-based visits for diabetes patients rose by 20% — from 94.4 million in 2005 to 113.3 million in 2010. The number of office visits for patients with diabetes aged 25 to 44 years jumped by 34% between 2005 and 2010.

Almost 29 million Americans have diabetes, the CDC said, and managing the disease costs almost $245 billion each year. The researchers note that since diabetes is linked to many other conditions such as heart disease, vision trouble and stroke, many of these visits involved treatment for multiple problems.

The new report “demonstrates that diabetes is no longer a disease of older patients,” Alyson Myers, MD, an endocrinologist at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y., told HealthDay.