Just Read: 55% of Californians have Insulin Resistance

As the title of the post says. I’m putting together slides for presentation I’m giving at a local Meetup, posting as I go…

This data comes from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research (@UCLAchpr) and used a combination of interviews and statistical modeling from the US based NHANES survey (which does retrieve blood samples). The paper cites a figure of 90% of people who do not know they are insulin resistant.

Here’s the summary along with required terms of use statement (data used under the terms of use on the site).

SUMMARY: In California, more than 13 million adults (46 percent of all adults in the state) are estimated to have prediabetes or undiagnosed diabetes. An additional 2.5 million adults have diagnosed diabetes. Altogether, 15.5 million adults (55 percent of all California adults) have prediabetes or diabetes. Although rates of prediabetes increase with age, rates are also high among young adults, with one-third of those ages 18-39 having prediabetes. In addition, rates of prediabetes are disproportionately high among young adults of color, with more than one-third of Latino, Pacific Islander, American Indian, African-American, and multiracial Californians ages 18-39 estimated to have prediabetes. Policy efforts should focus on reducing the burden of prediabetes and diabetes through support for prevention and treatment.Source: Babey SH, Wolstein J, Diamant AL, Goldstein H. Prediabetes in California: Nearly Half of California Adults on Path to Diabetes [Internet]. 2016. Available from: healthpolicy.ucla.edu/publications/search/pages/detail.as… Center for Health Policy Research, Copyright © 2006 The Regents of the University of California. All Rights Reserved.

Where this comes from

Here’s an example from my travels recently.

Here’s what Americans were told to begin eating beginning around 1961 (see: More from my trip to the Library of Congress and incredible US News and World Report photo collection: 1968’s Harried Housewife Preparing Convenience Foods (and how her diet was re-engineered to be carbohydrate-rich))

And here’s what happened after the first USDA guidelines were released in 1977. (see: Just Read: Prevalence trends tell us what did not precipitate the US obesity epidemic)

Nice infographic from the report cited here:

Citation and Video of Release of the report

1. Babey SH, Wolstein J, Diamant AL, Goldstein H. Prediabetes in California: Nearly Half of California Adults on Path to Diabetes [Internet]. 2016. Available from: http://healthpolicy.ucla.edu/publications/search/pages/detail.aspx?PubID=1472

As always, comments welcome.