Diabetes is becoming the most common chronic medical illness in the United States, with roughly 1.3 million new cases diagnosed annually.¹ Approximately 18.2 million people now have type 1 or type 2 diabetes (6.3% of the population), including 5.2 million people whose type 2 diabetes remains undiagnosed. Another 20.1 million adults in the United States (21.1% of the population > 20 years of age) have pre-diabetes, glucose regulation abnormalities that place them at risk for diabetes and coronary heart disease (CHD). In all, there are 38.3 million people in the United States with overt diabetes or pre-diabetes. The number represents a more than fivefold increase over the previous 35 years and parallels the epidemic rise of obesity in our population.

People with diabetes are significantly more likely to be disabled, incapacitated, or unemployed and have per capita and out-of-pocket medical expenditures two to five times greater than those without diabetes.² The annual total direct and indirect cost of diabetes in the United States exceeded $132 billion in 2002, or one in ten health dollars.¹

Not only burdensome …