Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Objective: To determine how effective various diabetes prevention strategies are in the U.S. by using a user-friendly risk calculator that makes use of routinely collected health information. Methods: Information from a national health survey in the U.S. was combined with a user-friendly risk calculator developed and proven to be effective in Canada to estimate how big a problem diabetes will be in the U.S. over the next 10 years. Mock scenarios were simulated to see what effect different prevention strategies would have on reducing the impact of diabetes by targeting different groups of the population. Results: It was found that the U.S. can expect upwards of 25 million new cases of diabetes over the next decade, but there are feasible strategies that can be put in place that could reduce this by almost 1/3 if they are targeted appropriately. Conclusions: This is the first study to use such a robust diabetes risk calculator in the U.S. population, following its success and accuracy in Canada. It provides novel insight into what types of strategies produce the most benefit with respect to reducing diabetes, and is informative for health policy makers in the U.S. for determining where resources should be best prioritized.