Do your patients know their risk for diabetes? They may be among the 89 percent of U.S. adults who have prediabetes but don’t even know it. This Tuesday is American Diabetes Association (ADA) Alert Day–a great opportunity to encourage your patients to be screened for not only diabetes but also for prediabetes.
Diabetes affects nearly 26 million people today, and three times that number have prediabetes, which places them at an elevated risk for developing diabetes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that as many as one in three adults could have diabetes by 2050 if current trends continue unmitigated.
The AMA is standing together with a group of seven* other national organizations to urge patients to know their diabetes risk and discuss it with their physicians.
In addition to regularly screening patients for diabetes and prediabetes, you can suggest that your patients take the ADA’s diabetes risk test and share it with their families so they all know their risk.
“Patients may feel that if they do not have diabetes, they are healthy. But people who have prediabetes are on an unhealthy path toward diabetes,” said AMA President Ardis Dee Hoven, MD. “The good news is, in many communities, physicians can refer patients with prediabetes to an evidence-based resource in the form of the Diabetes Prevention Program.”
The AMA is focusing on preventing type 2 diabetes through its Improving Health Outcomes initiative, partnering with the YMCA to help keep diabetes at bay for the 79 million Americans with prediabetes and other at-risk groups.
This partnership is starting with a pilot program that aims to establish clinic-community linkages to help patients make the lifestyle changes they need to avoid developing diabetes. The program starts with physicians screening their patients, then referring those with prediabetes to their local YMCA’s evidence-based Diabetes Prevention Program. Finally, a feedback loop is being created so that physicians will be able to integrate their patients’ experiences at the YMCA into their care plans.
The YMCA’s Diabetes Prevention Program is based on the CDC’s National Diabetes Prevention Program. Research shows that programs such as this have proven to reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes among all adults with prediabetes by 58 percent, and among people over age 60 by 71 percent.
The AMA also is pushing for adoption of a bill that would amend the Social Security Act to provide coverage of the National Diabetes Prevention Program to eligible Medicare patients.
*The other organizations involved in the American Diabetes Association Alert Day are the American Heart Association, the Diabetes Prevention and Control Alliance, the National Association of County and City Health Officials, the National Council of La Raza, the National Council on Aging and the YMCA of the USA.
