Diabetes mellitus and gestational diabetes, active and reserve component service members and dependents, 2008-2018

During 2008-2018, a total of 12,582 active component service members received incident diagnoses of any diabetes mellitus (DM), for a crude overall incidence rate of 84.8 per 100,000 person-years. More than four-fifths of incident cases were type 2 DM. The overall rates of this form of DM among Asian/Pacific Islander and non-Hispanic black active and reserve component service members were 1.5 or more times the rates among their respective counterparts in other race/ethnicity groups. Crude annual rates of type 2 DM diagnoses among active and reserve component members peaked in 2010 and then decreased to their lowest points in 2018. From 2010 through 2018, decreases in rates of incident type 2 DM diagnoses were observed among active and reserve component members in all subgroups examined (sex, age, race/ethnicity, service), with the greatest slopes of decline seen among service members aged 40 years or older, Asian/Pacific Islanders, and Army members. During 2008-2018, total counts of incident diagnoses of type 2 DM among Military Health System (MHS) dependents decreased by 66.0%, from 29,625 to 10,066. The overall crude prevalence of gestational DM ranged from 7.3% among active component service women to 8.4% among female MHS dependents. Comparisons to data from U.S. civilian populations are made when appropriate.