Study: New Yorkers More Likely to Have Diabetes

New York, NY —

Adults in New York City are about 30 percent more likely to have diabetes than the national average. And a larger proportion of local diabetics aren’t even aware they have the illness. That’s according to a new Health Department study, one of the most ambitious ever conducted by a city. WNYC’s Fred Mogul has more.

Twelve-and-a-half percent of local adults are diabetic, compared with a little more than 9 percent nationally. Dr. Lorna Thorpe, the Health Department’s lead researcher, says the gap probably comes from the relatively high incidence of poverty in New York City, and the greater proportion of diabetes-susceptible groups such as blacks and Asians. About one-third of diabetics here had never been diagnosed.

The city’s survey was the first ever in which a city didn’t just ask people to report on their conditions but actually had researchers examining patients and taking blood samples. For WNYC, I’m Fred Mogul.