Diabetes

Diabetes occurs when the body does not produce enough insulin or cannot use its own insulin well enough to reduce sugar (glucose) levels in the blood. Adult, or type 2, diabetes occurs in adulthood, usually in people who are overweight or obese.

Uncontrolled diabetes can lead to serious complications, such as blindness and other eye problems, kidney disease, neurological damage, hypertension, heart disease, stroke, and certain cancers. Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States, and accounts for more than 20% of health care spending.¹

The prevalence of adult diabetes was measured by asking respondents if they had ever been told by a doctor or other health professional that they had diabetes (or “sugar diabetes;” female respondents were instructed to exclude pregnancy-related diabetes).

Findings from the 2019 Santa Barbara County CHNA

In 2019 Santa Barbara County was slightly above the HP 2020 target for diabetes at 7.8% vs 7.2%. Only two subgroups are significantly below the target, those aged 18-44 and those with a college education. Most impacted demographic subgroups include Hispanics, those aged 65 years or older, those with less than high school education, and those with household incomes below $75,000 (see figures below).

Additional diabetes findings from the 2019 Santa Barbara County CHNA can be found in the Diabetes Health Indicator Profile. Follow this link to learn more about the methods for health indicator profile analysis.

Figure 1. 2019 Percentage of Adults Who Have Diabetes by Demographic Group

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For more information on diabetes findings from the 2019 Santa Barbara County CHNA, download the full, printable Diabetes Health Indicator Profile.

^{1 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2019). Diabetes: Working to reverse the U.S. epidemic [Factsheet]. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/resources/publications/aag/diabetes.htm}