National Diabetes Month is recognized annually each November. Its purpose is to boost awareness about the risk factors, symptoms, and types of diabetes.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), over 37 million Americans have diabetes.

North Carolina has its own troubling diabetes statistics:

  • Approximately 1,014,358 people in North Carolina, or 12.4% of the adult population, have diagnosed diabetes.
  • An additional 244,000 people in North Carolina have diabetes but don’t know it, greatly increasing their health risk.
  • There are 2,765,000 people in North Carolina, 34.6% of the adult population, who have prediabetes with blood glucose levels that are higher than normal but not yet high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes.
  • Every year an estimated 72,032 people in North Carolina are diagnosed with diabetes.
  • Diagnosed diabetes costs an estimated $10.6 billion in North Carolina each year.

Help your patients prevent or delay progression to diabetes by referring them to a CDC-recognized National Diabetes Prevention Program (National DPP) lifestyle change program, like DiabetesFreeNC.

DiabetesFreeNC, a statewide initiative to help prevent Type 2 Diabetes, lets physicians and care teams support their patients who have prediabetes with a free or low cost, evidence based National Diabetes Prevention Program.

Learn more about the initiative and take the pledge by clicking here.