College of Public Health Faculty Research Diabetes among Veterans

Dr. Ying Liu, Assistant Professor in the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology in the East Tennessee State University College of Public Health, has published a research brief for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention regarding diabetes among the United States veteran population.  The brief, “Prevalence of and Trends in Diabetes Among Veterans, United States, 2005–2014,” examined data from five cycles of the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. 

Drs. Kesheng Wang, Shimin Zheng, and Liang Wang from the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology along with Dr. Ying Li of the Department of Environmental Health in the College of Public Health are co-authors.  Sonica Sayam of University of Maryland and Xiaonan Shao of Carnegie Mellon University are additional co-authors.

Diabetes was the seventh leading cause of death in the United States in 2013. Approximately 30.3 million Americans had diabetes, including an estimated 7.2 million who had the disease but had not received a diagnosis. The disease is more prevalent among US veterans, who make up 9% of the civilian US population, than among the general population and affects nearly 25% of US Department of Veterans Affairs patients.

NHANES obtained representative samples from 50 states and the District of Columbia. Veteran status was self-identified through participant household interviews. The number of veterans interviewed ranged from 472 to 685 for each cycle from 2005 through 2012.

The researchers found the prevalence of diabetes in veterans in 2013–2014 was 20.5% and the prevalence of undiagnosed diabetes was 3.4%.  Diabetes was most prevalent among veterans aged 65 years or older (27%), among male veterans (22%), among veterans with less than 12 years of education (33.5%) and among veterans with an annual income below the federal poverty line (23.8%). The team concluded that effective prevention and intervention approaches are needed to lower diabetes prevalence among US veterans and ultimately improve their health status.

HealthDay and Endocrine Today featured the team’s research in separate media releases.