Diabetes is an epidemic in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), over 37 million Americans have diabetes and face its devastating consequences. What’s true nationwide is also true in Nevada. Nevada’s diabetes epidemic:
- Approximately 269,783 people in Nevada, or 10.9% of the adult population, have diagnosed diabetes.
- An additional 70,000 people in Nevada have diabetes but don’t know it, greatly increasing their health risk.
- There are 816,000 people in Nevada, 35.1% of the adult population, who have prediabetes with blood glucose levels that are higher than normal but not yet high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes.
- Every year an estimated 18,749 people in Nevada are diagnosed with diabetes.
Diabetes is expensive: People with diabetes have medical expenses approximately 2.3 times higher than those who do not have diabetes.
- Total direct medical expenses for diagnosed diabetes in Nevada were estimated at $2 billion in 2017.
- In addition, another $704 million was spent on indirect costs from lost productivity due to diabetes.