It draws on a variety of data sources that are regularly collected at the state and federal level, and which comprise the Massachusetts Diabetes Control Program's surveillance system. The report addresses the prevalence of diabetes, its associated morbidities, and the cost of health care spent on hospitalizations related to the disease. This report is intended to provide information to community health care providers that facilitates needs assessment and program planning and makes information about diabetes and its effect on life in Massachusetts available to those for whom it is of interest. Diabetes is serious, common, and costly. Estimates suggest that approximately 244,500 residents of Massachusetts have been diagnosed with diabetes, while as many as 122,200 additional residents have the disease, yet remain undiagnosed.
Diabetes disproportionately affects racial and ethnic minorities, the elderly, and the obese.
Residents of the Commonwealth who are age 75 or older are more than twice as likely to have diabetes as those between the ages of 45 and 64. Diabetes was the sixth leading cause of death listed on death certificates in Massachusetts during 1995. As with the estimated prevalence of the disease, the likelihood of mortality and morbidity associated with the disease increases with age. The diabetes mortality rate of the Massachusetts population also varied by sex and race. Every year between 1990 and 1995 males had a higher diabetes mortality rate than females did.