Diabetes May Strike 1 in 3 Americans

One in three Americans born in the year 2000 will develop adult-onset diabetes, a worsening epidemic that disproportionately affects women and minorities, researchers said Tuesday.

Rising rates of diabetes are directly related to the increasing incidence of obesity, said researcher K. M. Venkat Narayan of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study was published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Assn.

“Among Americans, a woman has a slightly higher risk, probably a 39% chance, of developing diabetes in her lifetime, and minority groups, particularly Hispanics, have a one-in-two chance of developing diabetes,” Narayan said.

Projecting trends based on data covering 360,000 Americans from 1984 to 2000, the research estimated the number of people with diabetes will increase to more than 28 million in 50 years from 17 million currently.