Impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) includes people with hyperglycemia at a lower level that those with diabetes; diabetes symptoms are absent. Many of these people will develop diabetes (ADA, 1996).
It is estimated that in the general population 45 years of age and older, more than 6 percent are diagnosed diabetes with an equal prevalence of undiagnosed cases. Based on 1988 age-specific U.S. population figures, it was estimated that total incident cases of type II diabetes (NIDDM) is 576,136 people per year. Risk factors for NIDDM include the following: history of family diabetes; obesity; race, American Indian, Hispanic, or black; age 45 years or older; previous IGT; hypertension or hyperlipidemia; women with a history of GDM or delivery of infants over nine pounds (ADA, 1996; Javitt, Aiello, Chiang, Ferris, Canner, & Greenfield, 1994).
Medical expenditures for the treatment of acute glycemic and chronic complications of diabetes includes hospitalization for medical conditions and in-patient expenditures. A 1991 National Hospital Discharge Survey and 1987 National Medical Expenditure Survey revealed that in 1991 there were 371,814 hospitalizations of middle-aged diabetes patients and 712,725 hospitalizations of elderly diabetic persons with me
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