Classification of diabetes mellitus

Diabetes mellitus affects almost 16 million Americans. It has become a major public health problem and the number one cause of adult blindness, end-stage renal disease, and nontraumatic amputations in the United States. It also markedly increases the risk for cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and peripheral artery disease. The resultant increased morbidity and mortality results in a cost from diabetes of almost $100 billion annually in the United States. Studies like the UK Prospective Diabetes Study have noted that a substantial percentage of patients with newly diagnosed diabetes already have evidence of microvascular and macrovascular complications of the disease. This indicates that diabetes began in these individuals many years before it was diagnosed. By reducing the diagnostic glycemic threshold for diabetes and recommending regular screening of individuals at increased risk, the ADA hopes that patients will have diabetes diagnosed earlier, before the occurrence of complications and at a time when appropriate treatment can reduce the long-term complications, adverse clinical outcomes, and impaired quality of life that today afflict so many diabetic individuals.