National Diabetes Awareness Month -- November 1999
November is National Diabetes Awareness Month. In the United States, an estimated 15.7 million persons have diabetes (1). During November, CDC, its 59 state and territorial diabetes-control programs, and other partners will highlight activities that emphasize preventing complications in persons with diabetes and assessing their level of care.
CDC's 1999 Diabetes and Flu/Pneumococcal Campaign is part of the ongoing "Diabetes. One Disease. Many Risks." campaign, which encourages persons with diabetes to receive influenza and pneumococcal vaccines because they are more likely than persons without diabetes to die with complications of influenza and pneumonia (2). Approximately half of persons with diabetes receive an annual influenza vaccination, and one third have received pneumococcal vaccine (3).
Better management by health-care teams and self-care can slow or prevent many complications of diabetes. The Diabetes Quality Improvement Project (DQIP) developed a set of diabetes-specific performance and outcome measures to assess care provided within health-care systems (i.e., health plans, physicians, and clinics) to persons with diabetes. The measures allow comparison of diabetes care between health systems.
Information about DQIP is available on the World-Wide Web at http://www.diabetes.org/dqip.asp.* Information about diabetes is available from CDC by toll-free telephone, (877) 232-3422; e-mail, diabetes@cdc.gov; on the World-Wide Web at http://www.cdc.gov/diabetes; by mail, Division of Diabetes Translation, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, CDC, P.O. Box 8728, Silver Spring, MD 20910; and from CDC's state and territorial diabetes-control programs.
References
CDC. National diabetes fact sheet: national estimates and general information on diabetes in the United States. Revised ed. Atlanta, Georgia: US Department of Health and Human Services, CDC, 1998.
Geiss LS, Thompson TJ. Are persons with diabetes more likely to die from influenza and pneumonia? Diabetes 1995;44:124.
CDC. Influenza and pneumococcal vaccination rates among persons with diabetes mellitus --United States, 1997. MMWR 1999;48:961-7.
* References to sites of non-CDC organizations on the Internet are provided as a service to MMWR readers and do not constitute or imply endorsement of these organizations or their programs by CDC or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. CDC is not responsible for the content of pages found at these sites.
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