Diabetes Hitting NYC Hard

Yesterday, the Health Department announced that half a million New Yorkers—one in eight—have been [diagnosed with diabetes], while another 200,000 are living with the disease and don’t even know it yet. The diabetes epidemic, the report concludes, is having “devastating effects” on the city, leading to soaring health care costs. It says that the [city spends $6.5 billion](http://www.nysun.com/article/59099) a year caring for patients with the disease, with hospitalization rates that are a staggering 79 percent higher than the national average. And that’s not the worst of it. The study also finds that the city’s diabetes death rate rose 71 percent (or 75 percent, depending on which Department of Health figure you use) between 1990 and 2003. The situation is especially bad in [low-income neighborhoods](http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=1&aid=71959): think ten-fold differences in diabetes-related hospitalizations between residents in low-income neighborhoods like the South Bronx and East Harlem versus the Upper East Side. Black New Yorkers are also three times as likely to die from diabetes as Caucasians, it finds.

“Diabetes is hitting the city hard,” New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas R. Frieden said in a statement released along with the study. “The cost of treating diabetes is an unsustainable burden on our health system and economy.” The study blames rising obesity rates, as well as access to healthcare.

The full report is available [here].

Art courtesy of [Joe_13 on Flickr]