ABSTRACT
Diabetes mellitus is a chronic debilitating disease currently estimated to affect 7% (over 20million) of the total population of the United States (1). Type 2 diabetes accounts for 90% to 95% of all cases of diabetes. Studies show that the prevalence of diabetes is disproportionately higher among ethnic minority groups, including African Americans, Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, Hispanic Americans, and Native Americans compared with Caucasians (1). Compared with white Americans, the relative increase in the prevalence of diabetes is 2.2fold in American Indians and Alaskan indigenous peoples, twofold in Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, 1.8-fold in African Americans and 1.7-fold in Hispanic/Latino Americans (1). Whereas the prevalence rate of diabetes is 8.7% in non-Hispanic white adults, it rises to 13.3% in African Americans and 27.6% in American Indians in Arizona (Fig. 1a). Furthermore, the incidence of new cases of diabetes in ethnic minority groups continues to increase. Whereas age-adjusted incidence of diabetes in subjects aged 18 to 79 years in the United States in 2004 was six per 1000 among whites, it was approximately 10 per 1000 in African American and Hispanic subjects (Fig. 1b) (1). A similar trend in the prevalence of diabetes has been demonstrated in the United Kingdom (UK). The prevalence of diabetes among Europeans in north-west London is 4%, compared to 30% in South Asian populations living in the same location, and 14% to 29% in people of African descent living in different locations in the United Kingdom (2).
