By RANDY GRIFFITH
Johnstown’s diabetes patients are generally younger and otherwise healthier than regional, state and national averages, a new report says.
For patients diagnosed in the Johnstown area, 56 percent are between 36- and 64-years-old, the nonprofit Pittsburgh Business Group on Health says in its second Type 2 Diabetes Report.
The 36 to 64 age group accounts for just 45 percent of diabetes patients in Pittsburgh and 49 percent across the state and nation.
Developed from insurance claim data, the report is designed to help employers see if their diabetes management strategy is successfully helping workers improve their health, the group says in a press release.
Johnstown’s figures could be good news or bad news for the area’s health, according to Linda Siminerio, director of the Pittsburgh Diabetes Institute.
“You could be in a community where great things are going on to identify people earlier,” Siminerio said. “Or it could be that you are in a community where people are getting diabetes at an earlier age. It is hard to interpret.”
Nationally, diabetes is hitting younger patients, she added.
“We are seeing a big increase in the 30s and 40s where we didn’t see it before,” Siminerio said.
No matter how it’s interpreted, there are more working-age people with diabetes, and it’s costing employers more.
Although Johnstown numbers were not included, diabetes treatment in emergency departments went up 14 percent in the state last year, while in-patient charges were up 5 percent and outpatient services up 18 percent.
The Pittsburgh-area charges for diabetics were below state averages, but rose at a whopping 48 percent for emergency room, 29 percent in-patient and
20 percent outpatient.
Johnstown employers can take heart in the report’s data showing diabetes patients here are less likely to have complications. Only 34 percent had two or more other medical conditions to complicate their diabetes. That’s the lowest of four western Pennsylvania-area cities reported, and below the state average of 38 percent.
A public health expert warns against reading too much into such reports when addressing the overall diabetes epidemic.
“The report itself is not coming from public health model, but from a business model,” said Dr. Matthew Masiello, chief wellness officer at Windber Research Institute.
“The numbers are larger, we are paying more money. That really goes to the point. Businesses should take out of this the importance of prevention. That is the key.”
