It's A Wonderment Wednesday! Diabetes Awareness

Good Morning!
Before we begin, we at SCRHRC want to remember and thank all the veterans that have served for our country.  

On a totally different subject, I don't know about you, but I've finally put away all my pink based Breast Cancer Awareness items and updated my my entire wardrobe for Diabetes Awareness Month. That's right, the same diabetes that effects over 29 million Americans currently. Diabetes doesn't play around. Diabetes can lead to blindness, kidney disease, cardiovascular damage, and a slew of other problems. So make sure you wear a grey or a blue circle pin and promote Diabetes awareness this November 14th (Saturday) and for the rest of the month! 

Remember it's a blue circle pin, not a blue pin.
 Blue pins are for colon cancer in March. 

Because we are slightly fond of rural health at SCRHRC, let's put on our research caps to see the difference between urban vs. rural for diabetes. According to a research brief written in 2009 by Dr. Kevin J. Bennett et al. at SCRHRC:

• Rural adults were more likely to report having diabetes than were urban adults (9.6% versus 8.4%).  

• The proportion of adults with diabetes who reported receiving at least two hemoglobin A1c tests within the past year was lower among rural  (33.1%) residents  than urban (35.0%) residents

• Rural black adults were nearly 20% more likely to report having diabetes than were urban black residents. 
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If you would like to read the full report you can click here. Don't believe the results here? In this paper, written by Dr. Nathan Hale et al. in 2010, reported similar results of higher prevalence of diabetes and poorer access to care by rural residents. In addition, they are more likely to report retinopathy and foot sores. That's right, people in rural areas are more likely to have diabetes, less likely to receive quality care, and have worse health outcomes! Can you say.....mind blown?

In the meantime, remember to give a nice tap on that subscribe button to the very bottom or top left hand side of this page to read more about the South Carolina Rural Health Research Center. See you next week, same place, same time.

Matt