New diabetes cases down 35 percent since 2008

After increasing for almost two decades, the annual number of new diabetes cases in U.S. adults fell by 35 percent between 2008 and 2017, to 1.3 million, according to a new study by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reported this week in the British Medical Journals’ Open Diabetes Research and Care. The share of U.S. adults living with a diabetes diagnosis peaked at 8.2 per 100 in 2009, then leveled to 8 per 100 or about 21 million. CDC estimates that one in four adults with diabetes have not been diagnosed. “The findings suggest that our work to stem the tide of type 2 diabetes may be working – but we still have a very long way to go,” said co-author Ann Albright, director of CDC’s Division of Diabetes Translation. “We must continue proven interventions and deploy innovative strategies if we’re going to see a continued decline in type 2 diabetes among Americans.”