Report: Diabetes Plagues Calif. Hispanics

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) April 30, 2004 — California's large and rapidly growing Hispanic population is developing diabetes at an alarming rate, a problem that poses new threats to a strained public health system, according to a report released Wednesday.

The report by UCLA's Center for Health Policy Research said that nearly a quarter of retirement-age Hispanics have been diagnosed with the incurable disease -- twice the percentage of whites and significantly more than Asians.

The study also found that Hispanics are more likely than other populations to be uninsured, making treatment of the disease that much more challenging.

"It's a significant public health problem, and it's growing,'' said Ann Albright, who runs the diabetes program for the California Department of Health Services.

Diabetes is an incurable condition characterized by the body's inability to break down sugars in the blood. It is the nation's seventh leading cause of death and the leading cause of adult blindness, kidney failure and amputation of lower limbs.

The report was based on data from a telephone survey of more than 55,000 state residents done in 2001. Respondents self identified their race.

Overall, about 6 percent of Californians have been diagnosed with diabetes, the report said. While younger Hispanics have a rate of diabetes comparable to other groups, the report said, the numbers begin to rise as the population ages.

By age 65, 24 percent of Hispanics are diagnosed with the disease -- compared to 12 percent of whites and 15 percent of Asians.

Genetic factors increase the chances of developing diabetes, but researchers agree that the nation's growing obesity problem has become the leading risk factor.

The report found that obesity -- and, by extension, diabetes -- is most common among Californians in low-income, rural, undereducated and non-English speaking communities.

Public health advocates pointed to research showing that Hispanic assimilation in the United States often leads to behavioral changes that can promote obesity.

"Living in the United States, we really decrease our exercise, change our diet, and eat a lot of fast food,'' said Carlos Londano, a Union City-based health educator.

While the report said diabetes is prevalent among the state's black and American Indian populations, their numbers do not rival the Hispanic presence in California. About one in three state residents is Hispanic.