Now Available on the Web: The Diabetes 2014 Report Card

A new 16-page publication, The Diabetes 2014 Report Card, is available for free download at http://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/pdfs/library/diabetesreportcard2014.pdf.

Published every two years by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Report Card contains the latest data available on prediabetes and the most common types of diabetes, along with risk factors, screening steps, diabetes complications, specific measures to prevent diabetes complications, and other information.

Data arranged by state or area reveal an intriguing trend—a “Diabetes Belt”: 15 southeastern states where the prevalence of diagnosed diabetes is especially high. The states are led by Mississippi, where 11.7 percent of adults have been told by a health care provider that they have diabetes. Louisiana (11.5 percent) and Alabama and West Virginia (both 11.1 percent) are close behind.

A newsworthy section called Stories from the Field presents glimpses of people and organizations that are making a difference in the lives of people with diabetes. Profiled are diabetes leaders and projects, including a National Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) Lifestyle Coach, a National DPP Participant, and a Gestational Diabetes Collaborative (GDC) that monitors and tracks cases of gestational diabetes and provides outreach and patient education.

The 2014 date in the publication’s title is somewhat misleading. The report was published in 2015, not 2014, and it doesn’t cover 2014 data, other than mentioning that in that year, diabetes was the seventh leading cause of death. (Compiling massive amounts of data generally takes data crunchers about three years.)