Indians, Native Alaskans suffering more from diabetes

WASHINGTON – American Indians and Alaska Natives suffer from diabetes more than any ethnic group and the disease is increasingly affecting young Indians, government health experts told Congress on Thursday.

“In some communities, the prevalence rate is as high as 60 percent among adults,” Charles Grim, the head of the Indian Health Service, told the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.

Grim said that agency statistics show that diabetes increased 128 percent among teens ages 15 to 19 between 1990 and 2004. The disease increased 77 percent among young people younger than 15 during the same time frame, he said.

A program that has established diabetes prevention and treatment programs in Indian country is set to expire next year. Two North Dakota doctors testified at Thursday’s hearing, urging the committee to renew it.

“We don’t want history to repeat itself,” said Dr. James Brosseau, director of the Altru Diabetes Center in Grand Forks, N.D. “Funding increases for alcohol treatment resulted in decreases in mortality rates, but when the funding was discontinued, mortality rates increased again.”

Dr. Biron Baker, a primary care physician at Medcenter One in Bismarck, N.D., asked for improvements within the Indian Health Service.

“Administrative ineptitude within the Indian Health Service is a glaring problem,” he said.

Committee Chairman Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said the panel will work to find resources to combat the disease.

“Diabetes is a serious problem that affects our American Indian communities more than any other group, and I’ll work to make sure we find a way to address it,” he said.