Office of Minority Health

What is Diabetes?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), diabetes is a chronic (long-lasting) health condition that affects how your body turns food into energy. Your body breaks down most of the food you eat into sugar (glucose) and releases it into your bloodstream. When your blood sugar goes up, it signals your pancreas to release insulin. Insulin acts like a key to let the blood sugar into your body’s cells for use as energy.

With diabetes, your body does not make enough insulin or cannot use it as well as it should. When there is not enough insulin or cells stop responding to insulin, too much blood sugar stays in your bloodstream. Over time, diabetes can cause serious health problems, such as heart disease, vision loss, and kidney disease. There is not a cure yet for diabetes, but losing weight, eating healthy food, and being active can really help. Other things you can do to help your diabetes include taking medication as prescribed; receiving diabetes self-management education and support; and being consistent with your medical appointments.

How Does Diabetes Affect African American Populations?

• In 2019, non-Hispanic blacks were twice as likely as non-Hispanic whites to die from diabetes.
• In 2018, African American adults were 60 percent more likely than non-Hispanic white adults to be diagnosed with diabetes by a physician.
• In 2019, non-Hispanic blacks were 2.5 times likely to be hospitalized with diabetes and associated long-term complications than non-Hispanic whites.
• In 2019, non-Hispanic blacks were 3.2 times more likely to be diagnosed with end stage renal disease as compared to non-Hispanic whites.

Diagnosed Cases of Diabetes

Source: CDC 2022. National Diabetes Surveillance System. https://gis.cdc.gov/grasp/diabetes/diabetesatlas-surveillance.html

Source: CDC 2022. National Diabetes Statistics Report, 2021. Appendix Table 3. https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/data/statistics-report/appendix.html

Death Rates

Source: CDC 2022. National Vital Statistics Report, Vol. 70, No. 8. Table 10.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr70/nvsr70-08-508.pdf [PDF | 2.05MB]

Related Conditions

Source:  CDC 2022.  National Diabetes Surveillance System.
https://gis.cdc.gov/grasp/diabetes/DiabetesAtlas.html [Accessed 12/16/2022]

Source: National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Reports. Data Query: Table 5_4_1_1_1_.2a.
http://nhqrnet.ahrq.gov/inhqrdr/data/query [Accessed 12/16/2022]

Source: National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Reports. Data Query. https://datatools.ahrq.gov/nhqdr [Accessed 12/16/2022]

Source: National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Reports. Data Query. http://nhqrnet.ahrq.gov/inhqrdr/data/query [Accessed 11/10/2022]

Source: CDC 2022. National Diabetes Surveillance System.
https://gis.cdc.gov/grasp/diabetes/diabetesatlas-surveillance.html

Treatment

Source: National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Reports. Data Query: [Accessed 11/10/2022]
http://nhqrnet.ahrq.gov/inhqrdr/data/query

Source: National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Reports. Data Query: [Accessed 11/10/2022]
http://nhqrnet.ahrq.gov/inhqrdr/data/query

Source: National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Reports. Data Query: [Accessed 11/10/2022]
http://nhqrnet.ahrq.gov/inhqrdr/data/query

Source: National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Reports. Data Query: [Accessed 11/10/2022]
http://nhqrnet.ahrq.gov/inhqrdr/data/query

Risk Factors

There are several risk factors related to diabetes. Some of these risk factors are:
Obesity and Overweight  - See  Obesity and African Americans
Hypertension - See  Heart Disease and African Americans
High Cholesterol - See  Heart Disease and African Americans
Cigarette Smoking - See  Heart Disease and African Americans