This article accompanies Fighting the 'Stealth Scourge'
The average direct medical cost to care for an employee with diabetes is approximately $13,000 a year -- more than five times the cost for a non-diabetic, according to Lincolnshire, Ill.-based Hewitt Associates.
Here are some other numbers associated with diabetes:
$18 million to $22 million
* What a typical employer with 9,500 employees and 500 pre-65 retirees spends on direct medical care for diabetics.
$174 billion
* The estimated total cost of diabetes in the United States ($116 billion in direct medical costs and $58 billion in indirect costs).
23.6 million
* Number of people with diabetes.
5.7 million
* Number of people with diabetes who have not yet been diagnosed.
1.6 million
* Number of new diabetes cases diagnosed in 2007 among those 20 years of age or older.
15 percent
* Percent of all African American adults who have diabetes.
10 percent
* Percent of Hispanic/Latino adults who have diabetes.
7.5 percent
* Percent of Asian American adults who have diabetes.
68 percent
* Percent of diabetics who die of heart disease or stroke.
75 percent
* Percent of diabetes sufferers who have high blood pressure.
60 percent to 70 percent
* Percent of diabetes sufferers who have mild to severe nervous system damage.
50
* Number of diabetics who develop blindness every 24 hours.
195
* Number of non-traumatic lower-limb amputations performed every 24 hours on diabetics.
Sources: Hewitt Associates; National Diabetes Education Program, a joint program of the National Institutes of Health; and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.