The highest concentrations of Americans with long-term complications from diabetes are clustered on the East Coast, according to a new study.
In addition, Florida and Texas appear to be the biggest hot spots in a map created by researchers from Carle Illinois College of Medicine in Champaign, IL. They also found clusters in areas on the West Coast. The lowest rates of long-term diabetes complications were in counties across the West and Great Plains.
The data, from Medicare and other public databases, was organized and exported into a geospatial analysis software. The resulting analyses highlighted demographic patterns, with bigger populations of Black and Hispanic diabetes patients in the hot spots, reported medical student Jacques Lowe, BA.
“Our hope is that by using these findings as a guide we can better concentrate our support to mitigate the complications of diabetes in these populations,” Lowe said in a statement.
Diabetes can cause serious cardiovascular complications. In the long-term care population, it is also linked to higher risk for cognitive decline, depression, falls, polypharmacy, chronic pain and urinary incontinence.
The findings were presented at ENDO 2022, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Atlanta, GA, which took place June 11 to 14.
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