Research Paper Title

Diabetes Mellitus and Gestational Diabetes, Active and Reserve Component Service Members and Dependents, 2008-2018

Background

During 2008-2018, a total of 12,582 active component service members received incident diagnoses of any diabetes mellitus (DM), for a crude overall incidence rate of 84.8 per 100,000 person-years.

More than four-fifths of incident cases were type 2 DM.

The overall rates of this form of DM among Asian/Pacific Islander and non-Hispanic black active and reserve component service members were 1.5 or more times the rates among their respective counterparts in other race/ethnicity groups.

Crude annual rates of type 2 DM diagnoses among active and reserve component members peaked in 2010 and then decreased to their lowest points in 2018.

From 2010 through 2018, decreases in rates of incident type 2 DM diagnoses were observed among active and reserve component members in all subgroups examined (sex, age, race/ethnicity, service), with the greatest slopes of decline seen among service members aged 40 years or older, Asian/Pacific Islanders, and Army members.

During 2008-2018, total counts of incident diagnoses of type 2 DM among Military Health System (MHS) dependents decreased by 66.0%, from 29,625 to 10,066.

The overall crude prevalence of gestational DM ranged from 7.3% among active component service women to 8.4% among female MHS dependants.

Comparisons to data from US civilian populations are made when appropriate.

Reference

Williams, V.F., Oh, G-T., Stahlman, S. & Shell, D. (2020) Diabetes Mellitus and Gestational Diabetes, Active and Reserve Component Service Members and Dependents, 2008-2018. MSMR. 27(2), pp.8-17.