The growing number of diabetic consumers has led many food and beverage manufacturers to introduce products that tap into their specific health demands in recent years. These include foods that replace, or partly replace, caloric sweeteners with low- and no-calorie sweeteners; functional fibers that may blunt blood sugar spikes after eating; and an overall interest in low-glycemic foods, defined as those that cause blood sugar levels to rise gradually after eating.
If current trends continue, 52 percent of Americans will be diabetic or prediabetic by 2020, up from about 40 percent today, researchers from the UnitedHealth Center for Health Reform & Modernization said. The American Diabetes Association defines prediabetes as a condition that nearly always precedes diabetes, in which blood glucose levels are higher than normal but not yet high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes.
The researchers, working for the insurance firm UnitedHealth Group, remain optimistic that at least part of the health burden of diabetes can be avoided, along with some of an estimated $3.35trn in associated health care costs over the next ten years.
Executive vice president of UnitedHealth Group and chairman of the UnitedHealth Center for Health Reform & Modernization Simon Stevens said: “Our new research shows there is a diabetes time bomb ticking in America, but fortunately there are practical steps that can be taken now to defuse it. What is now needed is concerted, national, multi-stakeholder action. Making a major impact on the prediabetes and diabetes epidemic will require health plans to engage consumers in new ways, while working to scale nationally some of the most promising preventive care models. Done right, the human and economic benefits for the nation could be substantial.”
The UnitedHealth Group’s report, The United States of Diabetes: Challenges and Opportunities in the Decade Ahead, suggests several strategies that could help stem the spread of diabetes in the United States and reduce health care costs, including public health initiatives and wider use of programs intended to combat obesity; intervention programs to help prevent prediabetes from developing into diabetes; and better management of diabetes through improved medication and care.
Using an American Diabetes Association projection model, the researchers said that diabetes and prediabetes will account for about ten percent of total health care spending by 2020, at an annual cost of almost $500bn – up from about $194 billion this year.
Meanwhile, other research into diabetes in the United States has been pessimistic about prospects of reducing prevalence of the condition. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new research last month, in which it said preventive measures could “considerably reduce but not eliminate” increases in the prevalence of diabetes.
The UnitedHealth report is available online here.