Prevalence of Diagnosed Diabetes and Total Diabetes among Asian Americans, 2011–2014

Asian Americans (AAs) comprise ∼6% of the U.S. population. However, there is little national information on the prevalence of diabetes (DM) among AAs. In addition, there are no national estimates of DM prevalence according to AA ancestral subgroups. Among sampled AA adults (age ≥20 years) we estimated the population prevalence of DM for all AAs and major geographic AA ancestral subgroups using data from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2011-2014. DM status was categorized as diagnosed (DiagDM), undiagnosed (UndiagDM; no DiagDM but HbA1c ≥6.5% or fasting plasma glucose ≥126mg/dl or 2-hour plasma glucose ≥200 mg/dl), or nondiabetic. We defined 4 AA ancestral subgroups as East AA (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean), South AA (Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan, Bangladeshi, Nepali, and Bhutanese), Southeast AA (Filipino, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laotian, Thai, Indonesian, Malaysian, Singaporean, and Hmong), and other AA. Age-sex adjusted prevalences and prevalence ratios were computed for the 4 AA subgroups, as well as for non-Hispanic whites, non-Hispanic blacks, and Mexican Americans (Table). Compared to non-Hispanic whites, East AAs had a similar prevalence of DiagDM but higher UndiagDM. The elevated prevalence of UndiagDM among AAs suggests the relatively low awareness of their condition and reinforces the importance of diabetes screening in these populations.