Racial disparities in U.S. diabetics correlate to higher risk hyperglycaemia: study

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- A new study has found that Mexican Americans and non-Hispanic Black diabetes patients have the most cases of severe hyperglycaemia in the United States.

The study, recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, used data from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey among 2,482 adults to conduct a serial, population-based, cross-sectional analysis.

The study revealed that among adults currently diagnosed with diabetes and receiving insulin, individuals who self-identified as Mexican Americans or non-Hispanic Black had the highest prevalence of severe hyperglycaemia.

Mexican Americans and non-Hispanic Black individuals who had been prescribed insulin had 2.29 and 2.48 times the odds of having severe hyperglycaemia, respectively, when compared with non-Hispanic Whites, according to the study.

This trend suggests that racial disparities may play a role in current diabetes outcomes, and the disparities might even be increasing, according to the study.