Fewer diabetics end up in hospital

According to new research from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Americans with diabetes are less likely than they were a decade ago, to need hospitalization for serious complications such as kidney failure.

The study found that the rate of people with diabetes admitted to a hospital for a potentially preventable reason fell by 35 percent between 1994 and 2002.

Dr. Michael Engelgau, associate director for prevention policy at the CDC's division of diabetes translation, there are now many good treatments and interventions for diabetes.

He was speaking at a meeting of the American Diabetes Association.

More than 18 million Americans suffer from diabetes, a condition in which the body does not produce enough insulin or cells ignore the insulin, which is needed to convert food into energy.

Most have type 2, once known as adult-onset, diabetes, which is tied to obesity and a sedentary lifestyle.

Complications from diabetes can lead to heart disease, blindness, kidney disease, and amputations.

In the CDC hospitalization study the team looked at the incidence of complications including uncontrolled diabetes that would lead to an emergency room visit, kidney failure and surgery for limb amputation.

Although the number of U.S. diabetes-related hospitalizations rose slightly over the 8-year period, it was felt that was due to a dramatic increase in the incidence of diabetes.

The researchers also found that the cost of hospitalization had more than doubled over the same period to $9.5 billion.

Roughly 8 percent of Americans suffer from diabetes, a rate that is up between 30 percent and 50 percent from 10 years ago.

In a separate CDC study it was found that the rate of kidney failure in diabetes patients peaked in 1996 and has fallen about 30 percent since then, despite the increasing prevalence of the disease in the United States.

Nilka Rios Burrows, a CDC epidemiologist and the study's lead investigator, says that people with diabetes now are less sick with the illness than people were 10 years ago, which is a promising trend, and the biggest reason for the drop was new medications to control blood sugar and hypertension.

The researchers say that patients are more educated about diabetes and doctors are more likely to diagnose it.

Nevertheless Engelgau says about 30 percent of diabetes cases go undiagnosed, down from 50 percent 15 years ago.