CDPHP Announcement - Diabetes Prevention and Control in Alaska - 2019 Burden Report

Diabetes Prevention and Control in Alaska

The High Cost of Diabetes
Alaskans will find in the 2019 Diabetes Prevention and Control Report not only key facts about diabetes in general but also why it is of vital concern for our state to continue evidence-based public health activities to reduce the risk, and burden, of diabetes, including economic costs (p.28). The CDC reports that after adjusting for age and gender, average medical expenditures among people with diagnosed diabetes are more than double the costs for people without diabetes. This burden report assessed the cost of the disease to Alaska’s Medicaid program: The average cost for Medicaid-paid healthcare in FY2016 was nearly $36,000 per person with diabetes, in stark contrast to the average of about $7,700 spent in the same year per person without a chronic health condition.

The Aging of Alaska’s Population
Playing into this disease risk is the changing Alaska population, most especially with the key factor of age. The state is relatively “younger” than other states. However, during recent years, Alaska’s population has been changing: the percent of Alaska’s population over age 65 was 8% in 2010 (about 56,000 people) and 11% in 2017 (about 83,000 people). This change means that health conditions that affect older people – such as diabetes – will become an even greater public health concern for Alaska in the future. Men especially seem to bear greater risk, with 26 diabetes-related deaths per 100,000 people, compared to women with 15 diabetes-related deaths per 100,000.

Engaging Partners to Support Alaskans’ Wellness
The purpose of this report is to provide information for partners in Alaska who are working to prevent diabetes, diabetes health complications and improve care for people with diabetes. Alaska’s Diabetes Prevention and Control Program, along with monitoring the burden of this disease, continues with federal and other grants to work with health systems, providers and other organizations to grow proven effective programs. They include screening capacity for prediabetes and type 2 diabetes and implementation of diabetes prevention and self-management programs that help adults avoid moving from prediabetes to type 2 diabetes, and those with type 2 diabetes to avoid health complications that can come from uncontrolled diabetes, such as blindness, amputations, and kidney failure.

To Read the full report, download the pdf.

For more information, and to take the prediabetes risk test, visit the new Alaska diabetes website: http://dhss.alaska.gov/dph/Chronic/Pages/Diabetes/default.aspx

 

---

Visit the Diabetes Prevention and Control program page to find out about our efforts to reduce the burden of diabetes in Alaska. For information about Diabetes Self-Management opportunities in Alaska visit our Diabetes Prevention & Management Programs page.

You are subscribed to Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion Announcements for Alaska DHSS.

To find out more about the CDPHP Section's mission to identify and advance the conditions that lead to safe and healthy lives for Alaskans go to http://dhss.alaska.gov/dph/Chronic/Pages/default.aspx