Why Is This Important?

Diabetes and its frequent precursor, prediabetes, are conditions on a continuum marked by high levels of blood glucose (blood sugar) due to defects in insulin production, insulin action, or both. Insulin is a hormone needed to absorb and use glucose as fuel for the body's cells. Diabetes can lower life expectancy and increase the risk of heart disease. It is the leading cause of kidney failure, lower limb amputation, and adult-onset blindness. Diabetes and its complications can often be prevented or delayed. People who are diagnosed with diabetes or prediabetes need to learn about their condition and build the skills and confidence necessary to successfully take care of themselves, with the help of their health care team and community resources. About one-quarter of people with diabetes don't know they have it, and most people with prediabetes don't know they have it. Unfortunately, people who are undiagnosed can't take steps to manage their condition. Data in this Profile are only about diagnosed diabetes prevalence.

Definition

Diabetes prevalence is the estimated percentage of New Jersey adults 18 years and older with diagnosed diabetes. All prevalence estimates are age-adjusted to the U.S. 2000 standard population (except for rates by age group).

Data Sources

• Behavioral Risk Factor Survey, Center for Health Statistics, New Jersey Department of Health
  (http://www.nj.gov/health/chs/njbrfs/)
• Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
  (https://www.cdc.gov/brfss/index.html)

How the Measure is Calculated

How Are We Doing?

In 2021, the age-adjusted prevalence of diagnosed diabetes in New Jersey was (8.9%). Hispanics (13.5%), and Blacks (12.7%) have a higher prevalence of diagnosed diabetes compared to Whites (6.3%) and Asians (7.6%).

How Do We Compare With the U.S.?

In 2021, New Jersey age-adjusted rate of adults diagnosed with diabetes was slightly lower compared to U.S. age-adjusted rate (8.9% vs. 10.3%).

What Is Being Done?

The Diabetes Prevention and Control Program (DPCP) approach to addressing diabetes in New Jersey is driven by population-based and evidence-based strategies to increase community-clinical linkages and clinical innovations to support the prevention and management of diabetes. The overall goal of the DPCP is to reduce the burden of diabetes on New Jersey residents by implementing community clinical linkages and health systems interventions that increase awareness of the disease, control disease related complications, and increase quality improvement processes in health systems, in the delivery of services to residents with diabetes. DPCP partners with organizations across the state to create Diabetes Resources Coordination Centers (DRCCs). These DRCCs liaise between community-based diabetes self-management education (DSME), diabetes prevention programs (DPP), and healthcare systems, to increase access to community-based programs, by helping providers establish referral policies and practices for diabetic patients. DPCP partners with NJ 2-1-1, the statewide non-emergency, information call center and website, to promote ADA-recognized, AADE-accredited and/or Stanford licensed diabetes self-management education, and lifestyle change workshops, and direct callers to increase utilization and access of these programs among New Jersey residents. NJ211 and the NJ Academy of Family Physicians also partners to leverage NJAFPs membership, through their statewide reach, to promote diabetes prevention and self-management resources to primary care providers. The Diabetes Prevention and Control Program collaborates with Department of Human Services (DHS) - Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired (CBVI) - Diabetic Eye Disease Detection (DEDD) Program to increase access to free eye examinations for uninsured or underinsured residents with diabetes. To increase state capacity to prevent type 2 diabetes in adults, NJDOH teamed up with the New Jersey Hospital Association (NJHA) to build capacity in the state by offering free Lifestyle Change Coach trainings to health systems and organizations interested in adopting the National Diabetes Prevention Program (NDPP). The Diabetes Prevention and Control Program (DPCP) currently partners with 22 Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) to adopt evidence-based strategies for the enhancement of electronic health records and/or team-based care appropriate for treating patients with diabetes in healthcare systems. Finally, DPCP collaborates with Regional Planning Collaboratives to leverage new clinical decision support systems for management of patients with diabetes to determine if there is a significant and sustainable impact on diabetes control and prevention in their patient populations. Through their enhanced health information exchanges, the RPCs confidentially report National Quality Forum measures 18 and 59, medication adherence measures, and other quality measures among providers (and to NJDOH) to support quality improvement activities.

Evidence-based Practices

Successful strategies implemented for FQHC partners include interventions such as incorporating clinical guidelines that are a part of a decision support system; changing roles and adding new positions to enhance care coordination teams; and improving usability and applicability of alerts, order sets, registries, and other clinical data available through electronic health records (EHRs) and health information exchanges (HIEs)

Other Objectives

There are 16 major Healthy People 2020 objectives for diabetes. Diabetes objectives D-5 to D-14 are about self-management and care behaviors among those with diagnosed diabetes. Objective D-15 is "Increase the proportion of people with diabetes whose condition has been diagnosed".

More Resources

New Jersey Diabetes Prevention and Control Program: [https://www.nj.gov/health/fhs/chronic/diabetes/] CDC Diabetes Info: [https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/index.html]