[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 16]
[House]
[Page 23147]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                        DIABETES AWARENESS MONTH

  (Ms. SANCHEZ asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, since November is National Diabetes 
Awareness Month, I would like to take this opportunity to encourage 
people to be screened for this disease and to learn more about the 
prevention and the treatment of this disease.
  Approximately 16 million people in the United States have diabetes, 
although about 5 million of those people do not even know they have it. 
Sadly, this is a disease that disproportionately affects minority 
groups and individuals who are 65 years or older. African Americans are 
1.7 times more often having diabetes than Caucasians. And Hispanics are 
almost twice as likely to have diabetes than non-Hispanic whites; 6.3 
million people with diabetes are 65 years of age or older.
  According to the American Diabetes Association, total health care 
costs incurred by people with diabetes for the year 1997 was $98 
billion. At present there is no method to prevent or cure diabetes, but 
there are several things that we can do as legislators and individuals. 
We can promote research that includes minority populations and people 
over 65 years of age. These groups are rapidly-growing segments of our 
population, and we should do this research.

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