Optimizing Your Approach to Insulin Therapy

Steven V. Edelman, MD

In the United States, 7% of the population or 20.8 million children and adults¹ have diabetes and this number is growing at an alarming rate.² If this trend continues unabated, 1 in 3 Americans and 1 in 2 minorities born in 2000 will develop diabetes.¹ In people aged >20 years, 1.5 million new cases of diabetes were diagnosed in 2005. Diabetes often results in microvascular and macrovascular complications.^3,4 Although these complications may be reduced by intensive treatment, including the initiation of insulin,^3,4 57% of adults with diabetes take oral medications only and 15% take neither insulin nor oral medications.¹