January 13, 2021

It is estimated that more than 12 percent of adults over the age of 18 in the United States have diabetes. New research led by Longjian Liu, MD, PhD, MSc, FAHA, Associate Professor in the Dornsife School of Public Health, looked at the associations of uncontrolled hyperglycemia with sociodemographic and cardiovascular factors.

Philadelphia has the highest prevalence of diabetes, out of 10 major U.S. cities, at over 15.4 percent of all adults over 18. Most studies have reported the incidence and prevalence of diabetes, but pay less attention to evaluating the treatment and disease control at both individual and community levels.

This study was funded by the Urban Health Collaborative (UHC) with pilot funding and was supported by UHC team members Kari Moore, MS, Research and Data Core Co-Lead, and Steven Melly, MS, MA, Geographic Information System (GIS) Specialist.

The results showed that the highest rate prevalence of uncontrolled hyperglycemia was found in the youngest age group of 18-54 at 36 percent. Patients living in neighborhoods with lower socioeconomic status (SES) had significantly higher uncontrolled hyperglycemia rates across the city.

Researchers have found that this study is one of the first to address that younger adults had higher rates of uncontrolled hyperglycemia.

More research must be done on hyperglycemia and diabetes to answer questions such as to why younger adults have poorer control of the disease than the older populations.