Diabetes For Developing Type II Diabetes - 1417 Words

Diabetes is a disease in which blood glucose levels are above normal. There are three types of diabetes: type I (previously called â€Å"insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus†), type II (previously called â€Å"non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus†, and gestational diabetes which is diagnosed during the second or third trimester of pregnancy). Prediabetes is a condition of high blood glucose of hemoglobin A1C levels, but these levels are not high enough to be classified as diabetes. These people are at increased risk for developing type II diabetes, stroke, and heart disease, but not all of them will progress to diabetes (CDC, 2014). Symptoms of early stage diabetes include frequent urination, excessive thirst, unexplained weight loss, and extreme†¦show more content†¦However, only about 50% of diabetes patients in the U.S. receive formal DSME (Nelson, Chapko, Reiber, Boyko, 2005). Through DSME, diabetics acquire the knowledge and learn the skills necessary for successfully modifying their behavior and self-managing their disease. The intention of educating these patients about their disease and its accompanying conditions is to help them achieve optimal health status, better quality of life, and reduce their needs for expensive healthcare (AADE, 2014). Diabetes education emphasizes on behaviors that are essential to improving diabetics’ health status and quality of life and which are within patients’ control. These behaviors are referred to as the AADE7TM (American Association of Diabetes Educators 7 Self-Care Behaviors) and are summarized in the figure to the right. (Mulcahy, et al., 200 3). Diabetes education and disease management are associated with less cost, cost-effectiveness, or positive return on investment (Boren, et al., 2009). The Public Health Burden of Diabetes: In 2012, 9.3% of Americans, or 29.1 million, had diabetes divided into 21.0 million diagnosed and 8.1 million undiagnosed cases (CDC, 2014). It was the the 7th leading cause of death in the United States in 2010 (CDC, 2014). In addition, the total cost of diagnosed diabetes in the United States in 2012 was $245 billion (CDC, 2014). Unfortunately,