Human Services News

From EurekAlert! - Breaking News:

An analysis combining 11 separate research studies found that blacks with diabetes have poorer control of blood sugar than whites, according to researchers from Wake Forest University School of Medicine and colleagues.

"This lower level of control may partly explain why blacks have disproportionately higher rates of death and complications from diabetes," said Julienne Kirk, PharmD, lead author of the study published online today (Aug. 25) in Diabetes Care.

Kirk said the findings point to the need to determine why the difference in control exists and to identify ways to prevent or reduce the resulting health problems.

The researchers analyzed studies that measured sugar control among blacks and whites using a blood test for glycosylated hemoglobin -- hemoglobin that has linked with glucose, or blood sugar.

By combining the data from the 11 studies into a "meta-analysis" involving a total of 42,273 white and 14,670 black patients, they were able to detect differences that may not have shown up in each individual study.

This was the first meta-analysis of racial and ethnic differences in blood sugar control among patients with diabetes.

The analysis focused on studies between 1993 and 2005 because the A1C measurement became more standardized during that time.

Funders of the research included the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Association of Teachers of Preventive Medicine.

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