National Healthcare Quality Report 2005

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Diabetes

Importance and Measures

Mortality
Number of deaths (2003)......................................................................................................	73,965²
Cause of death rank (2003)...................................................................................................	6th²

Prevalence
Total number of Americans with diabetes (2002)..................................................................	18,200,000⁷

Incidence
New cases (age 20 and over, 2002).....................................................................................	1,300,000⁷

Cost
Total cost (2002)..............................................................................................................	$132 billion⁷
Direct medical costs (2002)...............................................................................................	$92 billion⁷

Measures

Effective management of diabetes includes appropriate receipt of hemoglobin A1c tests, eye exams, and foot exams, as well as measures of associated outcomes (such as control of cholesterol, blood pressure, and HbA1c^iv levels). The two core report measures highlighted in this section are:

Receipt of three recommended diabetic services
Controlled hemoglobin, cholesterol, and blood pressure

In addition, a supplemental measure is also presented:

State variation in hemoglobin A1c testing

^iv HbA1c is glycosylated hemoglobin—the higher the level of glucose in the blood, the higher the HbA1c level.

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