Experts are not yet sure if the decline is due to efforts used to prevent diabetes finally taking effect or if diabetes has simply peaked in the U.S.
The rate of new cases of diabetes is on the decline in the U.S. The rate of new cases fell about a fifth between 2008 and 2014.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, this is the first sustained decline in 25 years. The drop in cases has been slow, CNBC reports, with gradual decreases not large enough to have any statistical significance. However, new data from 2014 confirmed that a decline in new diabetes cases is real. In 2014, there were 1.4 million new cases of diabetes. In 2008, that number was 1.7 million.
Experts are not yet sure if the decline is due to efforts used to prevent diabetes finally taking effect or if diabetes has simply peaked in the U.S. The statistical change does complement reports that Americans are slowly becoming healthier.
Evidence is coming forward that American eating habits are improving, after decades of poor dietary decisions. Americans are drinking around 25 percent less soda than they did in the late 1990s. Caloric intake has decreased, while physical activity has increased. Obesity, one of the leading causes of Type 2 diabetes, has leveled out in recent years.
While the decline appears to be good news, cases of diabetes are still double what they were in the early 1990s. The progress is uneven between demographic groups, with blacks and Hispanics not showing significant statistical changes in new diabetes cases, although both groups are showing downward trends.
Dr. David M. Nathan, the director of the Diabetes Center and Clinical Research Center at Massachusetts General Hospital says that while its not exactly time to celebrate, “It has finally entered into the consciousness of our population that the sedentary lifestyle is a real problem, that increased body weight is a real problem.”
