National Diabetes Month 2018: Preventing Type 2 Diabetes

The numbers

November is National Diabetes Month. At the time of the 2018 observance, about 30 million people in the United States were living with diabetes, and 84 million with prediabetes.

• People with prediabetes are at high risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and stroke.
• Women who have had gestational diabetes — diabetes during pregnancy — are more likely to develop type 2 diabetes later in life.

Type 2 diabetes can be prevented

Type 2 diabetes can be prevented or delayed through a structured lifestyle change program that promotes weight loss, healthy eating and more physical activity — the approach of the National Diabetes Prevention Program. The same issue of MMWR included a report on changes in gestational diabetes in the United States.

What CDC did

CDC plays a central role in preventing type 2 diabetes and its complications. In 2018 it:

• released an action guide to help pharmacists reach people at risk who could benefit from the National Diabetes Prevention Program;
• with partners, launched "Your Health with Joan Lunden and CDC," a broadcast miniseries exploring prediabetes and diabetes;
• launched the first national prediabetes awareness campaign, encouraging people to learn their risk.

More at CDC's diabetes pages.

Sources

Based on "National Diabetes Month — November 2018," MMWR, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; a work of the United States government in the public domain.