More than 12 million Americans suffer from diabetes, and approximately 300,000 people die each year from complications of the disease (Kagan and Gall, 1998). There are two forms of diabetes: Type I diabetics (15 percent to 20 percent of all diabetics)are insulin-dependent, and Type II are usually non-insulin dependent (80 percent to 85 percent of all diabetics) - they are controlled with oral medications. Type I diabetes usually starts in childhood, but a prime cause of Type II diabetes, which usually starts in those over 40 years of age, is obesity. There are racial and socioeconomic differences in the incidence of diabetes, and it is more common in females than in males.
African Americans have a higher risk of developing type II diabetes (adult onset) than whites (Brancati, Kao, Folsom, Watson and Szklo, 2000). A study was conducted to look at the risk of incident diabetes in African American vs white adults and to search for explanations for the racial differences. Subjects for the study were drawn from an ongoing Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study. A total of 2,646 African Americans and 9,461 white adults, ranging in age from 45 to 64 years, and diabetes-free at the beginning of the study, were followed for 9 years.
Results showed that the incidence of diabetes was 2.4 times greater in African American women and 1.5 time greater in African American men than in white women and men. It was determined that adiposity accounted for 47.8 percent of the difference in African American women, but made little difference in African American men. African American men and women had higher blood pressure before the onset of diabetes. The study showed that African Americans are at greater risk for developing Type II diabetes than are whites, and in the case of African American women, almost 50 percent of the extra risk is due to excess weight.
It was also found that there were several contributing factors to the h...