About 60,000 New York City adults are diagnosed with diabetes each year, and the disease is most prevalent in the Bronx, according to new city data.
The Bronx is also home to the four neighborhoods with the highest blood-sugar levels in the city among people who are diabetic as well as the highest rate of diabetes-related amputations, according to the findings, which were presented at a diabetes summit at BronxCare Hospital Center.
“ This graph is sobering,” said Donald Olson, an epidemiologist with the city health department, as he pointed to a chart showing that the rate of diabetes-related amputations is 75 per 100,000 adults in the Bronx, about 60% higher than the city as a whole.
Citywide, about 1 in 9 adults have been diagnosed with diabetes and the rate is twice as high for non-white New Yorkers as it is for white New Yorkers, according to Olson’s presentation.
The data shared at Wednesday's diabetes conference is a preview of an upcoming new report by the city. It will be the first the city publishes in response to a 2023 law that requires regular progress updates on city efforts to reduce diabetes. Only about 4.2% of New York City adults had diabetes in the early 1990s, compared with about 11% today.
Advocates seeking to quell the diabetes epidemic say regular data updates are an important first step. But some are also calling on Mayor Eric Adams and his administration to invest more in prevention, including low-cost educational workshops that have been shown to help people make measurable improvements in their diets and lifestyles.
Adams campaigned on his commitment to healthy food, often telling the story of how he reversed his own diabetes by switching to a (mostly) plant-based diet. Adams has introduced Meatless Mondays and Vegan Fridays in public schools and has expanded a Lifestyle Medicine program in the city’s public hospital system that aims to help people prevent or better manage conditions like diabetes through changes to sleep, diet and exercise.
“Not only has Mayor Adams been a vocal advocate for people with diabetes — he literally wrote the book on it,” William Fowler, a spokesperson for the mayor, said in a statement. “The Adams administration has invested in a wide range of programs that equitably expand access to healthy foods, which are critical to fighting diabetes.”
But Chris Norwood, executive director of Health People, a group seeking to address chronic disease in the Bronx, says the city can do more. For starters, she is calling on Adams and the City Council to include $3.5 million in the budget to train more New Yorkers to lead classes that help people who are at risk for diabetes avoid getting it — and to help those who have the condition manage it better.
The classes Norwood wants to expand access to adhere to evidence-based models promoted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, known as the National Diabetes Prevention Program and the Diabetes Self-Management Program.
“You have so many people in communities that love this kind of work,” said Norwood, whose organization already helps facilitate these programs. ”It's satisfying. They get some extra income – not a lot, but some – and the community benefits.”
Bronxite Kendra Hardy, 55, an advocate with Health People, said she lost both her parents to diabetes-related kidney failure. “ I thought I was going to be next,” she said.
Hardy said her A1C, or average blood-sugar level, was a dangerous 13 when she started the Diabetes Self-Management Program a decade ago, but she brought it down to 6.1, which means her condition is well-managed.
Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson, who organized the event, said her mother died from diabetes-related complications in August. Gibson said she also changed her own diet and exercise after finding out she was prediabetic.
“ My goal is to change the narrative of the Bronx, to not allow us to be No. 62 out of all counties across the state when it comes to health outcomes,” she said.
Health care professionals who spoke about diabetes treatment and prevention at the event emphasized the importance of education around diet and exercise, but added that recommendations must be tailored to people’s budgets, cultural norms and other circumstances.
They also emphasized the importance of insurance coverage for diabetes treatment for those who need it, including GLP1s, expensive diabetes medications that have also become popular weight loss drugs in recent years.
This story has been updated to include a statement from the mayor's office.
