Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Diabetes. May 15, 2015; 6(4): 543-547
Published online May 15, 2015. doi: 10.4239/wjd.v6.i4.543
Type 2 diabetes among Asian Americans: Prevalence and prevention
Tam H Nguyen, Thuc-Nhi Nguyen, Taylor Fischer, Won Ha, Thanh V Tran
Tam H Nguyen, Taylor Fischer, William F. Connell School of Nursing, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, United States
Thuc-Nhi Nguyen, Thanh V Tran, Graduate School of Social Work, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, United States
Won Ha, Graduate School of Social Work Library, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, United States
Author contributions: Nguyen TH, Nguyen TN, Fischer T and Ha W helped search and review the literature; all authors helped draft and review the article.
Conflict-of-interest: Dr. Nguyen has nothing to disclose.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Tam H Nguyen, PhD, MSN/MPH, RN, Assistant Professor, William F. Connell School of Nursing, Boston College, 140 Commonwealth Ave, Cushing Hall 336C, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, United States. tam.nguyen@bc.edu
Telephone: +1-617-5523669 Fax: +1-617-552366
Received: November 28, 2014
Peer-review started: November 29, 2014
First decision: January 8, 2015
Revised: January 31, 2015
Accepted: February 10, 2015
Article in press: February 12, 2015
Published online: May 15, 2015
Abstract

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a growing problem among Asian Americans. Based on the Centers for Disease Control, the age-adjusted prevalence of T2DM for Asian Americans is 9%, placing them at “moderate risk”. However differential patterns of disease burden emerge when examining disaggregated data across Asian American ethnic groups; with Filipino, Pacific Islander, Japanese, and South Asian groups consistently described as having the highest prevalence of T2DM. Disentangling and strengthening prevalence data is vital for on-going prevention efforts. The strongest evidence currently available to guide the prevention of T2DM in the United States comes from a large multicenter randomized clinical control trial called the Diabetes Prevention Program, which targets individual lifestyle behavior changes. It has been translated and adopted for some Asian American groups, and shows promise. However stronger study designs and attention to several key methodological considerations will improve the science. Increased attention has also been directed toward population level downstream prevention efforts. Building an infrastructure that includes both individual and population approaches is needed to prevent T2DM among Asian American populations, and is essential for reducing health disparities.

Keywords: Type 2 diabetes mellitus, Asian American, Prevalence, Prevention, Health disparity

Core tip: Current estimates suggest that type 2 diabetes affects approximately 9% of Asian Americans overall. However, when examining disaggregated data across different ethnic groups Filipino, Pacific Islander, Japanese, and South Asian groups consistently have the highest prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus. This highlights how aggregating Asian Americans into one category can potentially mask the disease burden in high risk groups, while inflating the burden in low risk groups. Prevention efforts therefore need be culturally tailored to meet the unique needs of the various Asian American ethnic groups. In addition, prevention efforts should address both individual and population level strategies.