KPCC Series Examines Type 2 Diabetes Among State Residents
KPCC's "KPCC News" on Monday aired the first in a three-part series on type 2 diabetes in California and reported on the increasing numbers of children and teenagers in the state who are diagnosed with the condition.
According to Anne Peters, director of the University of Southern California Westside Center for Diabetes and director of the Comprehensive Diabetes Center at Roybal Community Medical Center, children born in or after 2000 have a one-in-three chance of developing diabetes in their lifetime. She said minority children have a 50% chance of developing the disease.
More than two million California residents currently have diabetes and the number is expected to double by 2020, KPCC reports.
Peters' clinic is one of two outpatient facilities in east and south Los Angeles providing community-based care, including:
- Peer education;
- Prevention efforts;
- "One-stop" medical assistance; and
- Hands-on programs, such as weekly grocery store tours to illustrate nutrition and diet information.
The KPCC segment includes comments from Sandra Najar, a peer advocate at the diabetes clinic at Roybal Community Medical Center, and Valerie Ruelas, vice chair of the Keck Diabetes Prevention Initiative (Felde, "KPCC News," KPCC, 10/9).
The second segment in the series, which aired on Tuesday, profiled Life-Like Prosthetics, a clinic in Torrance that creates artificial limbs. According to owner Carlos Sambrano, about 70% to 75% of the clinic's current clients have diabetes, compared to 30 years ago when most clients lost limbs from car accidents, cancer or birth defects. The segment includes comments from Sambrano and the clinic's clients.
The third segment in the series, which is scheduled to air on Wednesday, will follow a group of diabetes patients visiting a Los Angeles grocery store to learn about shopping for healthy foods (Felde, "KPCC News," KPCC, 10/10).
Audio of the series segments are available online in RealPlayer. This is part of the California Healthline Daily Edition, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.