The Prevalence of Diabetes and Obesity in the United States

Comparison of Research Articles on Diabetes
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Introduction
The prevalence of diabetes has risen to epidemic proportions globally. This has been attributed to population growth, urbanization, sedentary lifestyle, high prevalence of obesity and aging. In 2012, it was estimated that over 371 million people worldwide had diabetes and over 90% of them presented with type 2 diabetes. In the United States alone, the number of Americans presenting with diabetes had gone up from 23.6 million (in 2007) to 25.8 million (in early 2011). Research findings show that there is a rise in the epidemic of type 2 diabetes and has been ranked among the leading causes of premature mortality and morbidity in the contemporary world. This has been attributed mainly due to the macro-vascular as well as micro-vascular complications linked to the disease (Pratley, 2013).
The prevalence of diabetes has taken a rising trend where in 2007; the number of Americans in US diagnosed with the disease reached 17.5 million. The rising number of diabetic cases has resulted in impacting a big cost on the economy of a nation. For instant, as a result of health complications associated with type 2 diabetes, it has been estimated that there is a big burden imposed on the United State’ economy. For instant, in 2007, the estimated cost of diabetes was $174 billion in which $116 billion was spent on excess medical expenditures and the other $58billion was as a result of reduced national productivity. The medical costs linked to treatment of diabetes include $27 billion spent on giving care while treating diabetes, $58 billion spent on treating chronic ailments that are related to diabetes and $31 billion spent on excess general medical costs. In 2012, the estimated economic cost in US was $245billion; where $176 billion was attributed to direct medical cost and the rest ($69 billion) to reduced productivity. The hospital in care for the diabetic patients takes the highest portions of the incurred expenses with 50% of the total cost. The other portion-12% is attributed to diabetes medication and supply. The retail prescriptions used in treating various complications associated with diabetes takes 11% of the total cost. The rest of the percentage- 9% of the total cost is incurred as the diabetic patients visit physician’s office. On average, people suffering from diabetes incur an extra medical expenditure of roughly 2.3 times above that of people with no diabetes. For categories of cost that have been analyzed, approximately $1: $5 health care dollars in the United States is spent taking care of a person who has been diagnosed with diabetes. Approximately $1:$10 health care dollars is accredited to diabetes. Costs that are incurred indirectly include loss due to absenteeism from work ($2.6 billion), reduced productivity for the working population ($20.0 billion), reduced productivity for non working population ($0.8 billion), retrenchment on medical ground due to diabetes incapacitation ($7.9 billion) and lost productivity as a result of early deaths ($26.9 billion) (Zhuo et al, 2013).
Research has connected the prevalence of diabetes with that of obesity. A US study conducted in 2000 showed that the prevalence of diabetes was 7.3 % in a...