According to a study by the Changing Diabetes Program, Americans with undiagnosed diabetes incur approximately $18 billion in medical services and lost productivity from diabetes-related complications. This new information gives a sense of the economic burden of diabetes on the United States health care system.
 
About 25 percent of the 23.6 million Americans with diabetes are not aware they have the disease. Data from the study also showed the prevalence of undiagnosed diabetes increased with age until age 70 and was more common in men.
 
The study demonstrated the need for policies that encourage early diagnosis of diabetes so the disease can be managed before it leads to costly complications.
 
Diabetes is the number one cause of kidney disease.

This article originally appeared in the June 2009 issue of Kidney Beginnings: The Electronic Newsletter.