Diabetes and American Indians/Alaska Natives

  • American Indian/Alaska Native adults are almost three times more likely than non-Hispanic white adults to be diagnosed with diabetes.
  • In 2018, American Indians/Alaska Natives were 2.3 times more likely than non-Hispanic whites to die from diabetes.
  • In 2017, American Indians/ Alaska Natives were twice as likely to be diagnosed with end stage renal disease than non-Hispanic whites.

Diagnosed Cases of Diabetes

Age-adjusted percentage of persons 18 years of age and over with diabetes, 2018
American Indian/Alaska Native Non-Hispanic WhiteAmerican Indian/Alaska Native / Non-Hispanic White Ratio
23.58.02.9

Source: CDC 2021. Summary Health Statistics: National Health Interview Survey: 2018. Table A-4a. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhis/shs/tables.htm

Age-adjusted percentage of diagnosed diabetes for adults age 18 and over, 2017-2018
American Indian/Alaska NativeNon-Hispanic WhiteAmerican Indian/Alaska Native / Non-Hispanic White Ratio
Men14.58.61.7
Women14.86.62.2
Total14.77.52.0

Source: CDC 2020. National Diabetes Statistics Report, 2020. Appendix Table 3.
https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/data/statistics-report/index.html

Death Rates

Age-adjusted diabetes death rates per 100,000 (2018)
Non-Hispanic American Indian/Alaska NativeNon-Hispanic WhiteNon-Hispanic American Indian/Alaska Native/ Non-Hispanic White Ratio
Male50.624.32.1
Female37.314.32.6
Total43.718.92.3

Source: CDC 2021. National Vital Statistics Report, Vol. 69, No. 13. Table 10.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr69/nvsr69-13-508.pdf [PDF | 2.05MB]

Risk Factors

There are several risk factors related to diabetes. Some of these risk factors are:

Obesity and Overweight - See Obesity and American Indians/Alaska Natives
Hypertension - See Heart Disease and American Indians/Alaska Natives
High Cholesterol - See Heart Disease and American Indians/Alaska Natives
Cigarette Smoking - See Heart Disease and American Indians/Alaska Natives


Related Conditions

Age-adjusted incidence rate per million of end stage renal disease (ESRD) due to diabetes, 2017
American Indian/Alaska NativeNon-Hispanic WhiteAmerican Indian/Alaska Native / Non-Hispanic White Ratio
274.9131.02.1

Source: National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Reports. Data Query: Table 6_4_3_6_1.2a and 2b. [Accessed 2/22/2021]
http://nhqrnet.ahrq.gov/inhqrdr/data/query

Treatment

Age-adjusted percentage of persons 18 years of age and over with diabetes who had a foot examination, 2017
American Indian/Alaska NativeNon-Hispanic WhiteAmerican Indian/Alaska Native / Non-Hispanic White Ratio
72.8 70.0 1.0

Source: CDC, 2021. Healthy People 2020 Database. Table D-9.
http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/Data/default.aspx


Age-adjusted percentage of persons 18 years of age and over with diabetes who had a retinal eye examination, 2017
American Indian/Alaska NativeNon-Hispanic WhiteAmerican Indian/Alaska Native / Non-Hispanic White Ratio
63.961.41.0

Source: CDC, 2021. Healthy People 2020 Database. Table D-10.
http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/Data/default.aspx