Nearly half of Sacramento County residents face diabetes risk

Put down the soda: Forty-six percent of Sacramento County residents are prediabetic or diabetic without knowing it, according to a new UCLA study that puts California on notice for an expansive health epidemic.

Prediabetes indicates abnormally high blood glucose levels and predicts Type 2 diabetes in up to 70 percent of lifetime cases.

The county rate is equal to the state’s, both of which far outstrip the percentage of confirmed Type 2 diagnoses, which stands at 9 percent of the California population.

“This is the clearest indication to date that the diabetes epidemic is out of control and getting worse,” Dr. Harold Goldstein, executive director of the California Center for Public Health Advocacy, said in a release.

The CCPHA commissioned the study, which was conducted by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. The study analyzed hemoglobin A1c and fasting plasma glucose findings from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey together with California Health Interview Survey data from over 40,000 respondents, the release says.

Goldstein blamed the alarming figures on a lack of healthy food options and safe places to play, especially in low-income and urban neighborhoods, as well as heavy marketing by soda and junk food companies.

“If there is any hope to keep health insurance costs from skyrocketing, health care providers from being overwhelmed and millions of Californians from suffering needlessly from amputations, blindness and kidney failure, the state of California must launch a major campaign to turn around the epidemic of type 2 diabetes,” he said.