Diabetes is a group of metabolic diseases resulting from the body’s inability to produce enough insulin, or because cells do not respond to the insulin that is produced.  The result is high blood sugar that must be controlled by medication or strict dietary control.  Uncontrolled diabetes can lead to many related health problems such as blindness, cardiac problems, strokes, kidney failure and amputations.  Type 2 diabetes, resulting from insulin resistance, is often related to overweight and obesity.  An estimated 20 million individuals, or 7.8 % of the U.S. population, live with type 2 diabetes.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) projects that the prevalence of diabetes in the U.S. will double or triple by 2050 to as many as one in three U.S. residents having the disease.

Among all U.S. states, South Carolina ranks 10th in cases of diagnosed diabetes, and the prevalence of the disease in the state is 9.6%.  Including those who are undiagnosed, an estimated 300,000-350,000 residents of South Carolina live with diabetes.  Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in South Carolina, with approximately 3,000 residents dying of the disease each year.   One in every seven patients in a South Carolina hospital has diabetes, and hospital costs of the disease have increased by 50% in the past five years.  In 2006, the total amount for hospital charges related to diabetes diagnosis in the state was $199.5 million, and the total direct and indirect costs of hospitalizations and emergency room visits were over $2.7 billion.

The 2007 prevalence rate of diabetes among Spartanburg County adults was between 8.9% and 10.3%.   

The prevalence of diabetes cases in Spartanburg County hospitals is substantially greater than the prevalence in hospitals throughout the state on average.  The rate of visits to the emergency department and the rate of inpatient hospitalizations for black diabetics are higher than for white diabetics in Spartanburg County.  Further, the death rate for black diabetics is substantially greater than for white diabetics.  Hospital data for diabetes cases treated in South Carolina in 2008 are indicated below.