Diabetes Trends, Risk Factors and Disparities Among Adult Women in North Carolina, 1995-2008

Objective:Diabetes trends, risk factors and disparities among adult women in North Carolina, 1995-2008. Setting: With greater prevalence of obesity and increasing elderly population, diabetes is becoming a major cause of disability and death among women in North Carolina. More than 336,000 adult women had diabetes in 2008. The rising obesity and physical inactivity have contributed to increasing trends in prediabetes and type 2 diabetes, especially in African American and other ethnic minority women.

Methods:North Carolina State Center for Health Statistics provided Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data. NC resident death certificates data were utilized to assess female mortality.  

Results:The diagnosed diabetes among adult women in North Carolina has almost doubled from 5% in 1995 to 9.5% in 2008. African American women (16.4%) are twice as likely to have diabetes as white women (7.9%).   Women with less than high school education (17.7%) have more than three times the diabetes prevalence than do college graduates (5.1%).  Women with less than $15,000 household income have five times more diabetes prevalence than women with $75,000 or more.  Females with diabetes were more obese (54.3% vs. 44.2%) and physically inactive (41.6% vs. 29.1%) compared to men.  In 2007, the diabetes mortality for African American women was three times higher at 56.5 per 100,000 than for white women at 19.1 per 100,000.  

Conclusion:African American and other ethnic minority women with less education and lower incomes are identified as the demographic population with higher diabetes prevalence and mortality in NC.