Challenges
- Approximately 3.0 million people in Texas (14% of the population) have diabetes. Among them, an estimated 663,000 are undiagnosed, which significantly increases their health risks.
- Another 6.8 million people have prediabetes, with blood glucose levels above the normal range but not yet high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes.
- The annual cost of diabetes and prediabetes in Texas is estimated at $25.6 billion.
- Texas is projected to have a higher diabetes incidence rate and increased health care costs in the future due to the growing population of Hispanics/Latinos, who are at greater risk for the disease.
AgriLife Extension Response
or download a printer-friendly PDF
Diabetes is not curable, but it is manageable. People can learn skills to manage their diabetes and reduce the risk of developing it through better nutrition, exercise and monitoring blood-sugar levels when education is readily available.
- Do Well, Be Well with Diabetes is a low-cost class series covering nine self-care and nutrition topics in five sessions.
- ¡Sí, Yo Puedo Controlar Mí Diabetes! addresses the gap in health programming in type 2 diabetes self-management education for Texas Hispanics/ Latinos.
- Cooking Well with Diabetes engages dietitians and diabetes educators to reinforce the practical nutritional applications of the selfcare lesson series Do Well, Be Well with Diabetes.
- Wisdom, Power, Control addresses the need for an evidence-based, culturally relevant type 2 diabetes self-management education (DSME) program to help African Americans.
- Through Healthy South Texas, the pilot program of Healthy Texas, AgriLife Extension is working to reduce the highest impact diseases and their consequences throughout a 27-county region in South Texas. The goal is to focus on prevention by engaging families and communities, promoting healthy behaviors, encouraging preventive care and improving disease outcomes.
- In 2019, diabetes education programs reached more than 53,000 educational and other contacts.
Economic Impacts
From a broader perspective, these programs reach communities and individuals lacking access to diabetes education, enabling a better quality of life and improved productivity for people with diabetes.
- For people without diabetes, average annual health care costs range from $4,220 to $7,151. For those with diabetes, that amount soars to an average of $16,752 per year.
- Proper self-management of the disease enables people with diabetes to reduce their health care costs to levels closer to the nondiabetes level.
- AgriLife Extension diabetes education programs led to estimated lifetime health care cost savings and improved productivity of $16.7 million for approximately 600 participants in 2019.
