Diabetes Testing among Poor, Minority and
Inner-City Adults Plummets
Newswise, April 21, 2011 — .
For middle-income adults the drop in these
three tests to prevent complications from
diabetes was 41percent to 33 percent, but in
contrast, the proportion of high-income
adults who had all three exams remained the
same at 52 percent. Complications can
include blindness, kidney failure, and
amputation.
Overall, data from the federal agency found
certain groups did not have these three
important tests between 2002 and 2007:
• Blacks experienced an 11 percentage point
plunge, from 43 percent to 32 percent, while
the proportion of Hispanics who had all
three exams tumbled from 34 percent to 27
percent. Among whites, the decline was the
smallest, at 4 percentage points (from 43
percent to 39 percent).
• Regardless of race or ethnicity,
complications monitoring among adult
residents of large inner cities dropped from
45 percent to just under 33 percent.
• Also regardless of race, the percentage of
adults with high school education who had
the three tests fell 11 points (from 43
percent to 32 percent) and for those who did
not finish high school, the drop was 34
percent to 29 percent. The reduction was
only 4 percent (51 percent to 47 percent)
for adults with at least some college
education.
This AHRQ News and Numbers is based on
information in the 2010 National Healthcare
Disparities Report (http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/qrdr10.htm
) , which examines the disparities in
Americans' access to and
quality of health care, with breakdowns by
race, ethnicity, income, and education.
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