Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Fort Peck Tribal Health Department is a success story showing how a community can reduce diabetes rates. From left: Janene Padilla, Diabetes Coordinator Tessie LaMere. Cheryl Bighorn-Savior (RN), and Laurel Cheek.
Across America diabetes rates are exploding. Recent data show diabetes rates increasing in nearly all of the 2,992 counties in the U.S. And ten of those counties showed a decrease.
Here is the thing: Two of the ten counties showing a decrease in rates are found on Indian reservations, Fort Peck, Montana, and Rosebud, South Dakota.
Indian Health Service data also shows a slowing of the diabetes epidemic. From 2001-2005, there was a relative increase in age-adjusted diabetes prevalence in American Indian and Alaska Native adults of 2.2% per year on average. Contrast that with 2006-2013 numbers that show diabetes prevalence increased at a rate of 0.8% per year on average.
We hear all the time about how bad things are in Indian Country. But when you look at the spike in rates of diabetes across the country — it’s clear that Indian Country is showing what can be done to reverse a dangerous trend.
