Spending on diabetes topped $170 billion in 2007 and is set to rise even further this year. The simple fact is that diabetes sufferers now account for one in every five dollars spent on healthcare in America. But with almost 20 million sufferers across the States, a figure set to double over the next two decades, the real cost to the American economy is much higher.

Last year, people with diabetes took 15 million days off work, spent 120 million days underperforming in their jobs and cost US business an estimated $27 billion. More than 280,000 people died as a result of their diabetes.

By 2030 one in twenty adults over 20 years old is expected to have the condition, a statistic that will have a major impact on the nation’s productivity. Not only will we be spending more on medication and other medical costs, we will be producing less, as more of us are forced to stay off work. We will be dying younger and spending longer in hospitals, stretching an already overburdened healthcare system.

These figures do not include the social costs to America, the pain and suffering of those affected, the unpaid time given by carers and families and the wasted money spent by undiagnosed diabetics.

At present more than 50 million Americans do not know they have diabetes and continue to lead the kind of lives which do little to tackle their condition. Healthcare professionals have a part to play in tackling this, with better screening techniques, earlier diagnosis and prompter treatment.

Severe vision loss could be slashed by more than 50% if sight-saving laser therapies are implemented in a timely manner, while earlier detection of liver and kidney disease could improve kidney function in many sufferers by as much as 70%. An improved system of foot care would virtually eliminate cases of lower limb amputation completely.

Diabetes affects the entire nation and we should all be involved in fighting it.

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