California spends less per person than any state on diabetes prevention programs, even as one in 12 California adults is estimated to suffer from the chronic disease, according to a new from the California State Auditor.
Using only federal grants, California spent just 3 cents per person on diabetes prevention in the 2012-2013 fiscal year, compared to New York鈥檚 42 cents per person in state and federal money that year, the report noted.
A California Department of Public Health spokesman said no one was available for comment on Friday.
Because of declines in federal funding, California in 2012 shuttered nine regional centers devoted to reducing gestational diabetes. Now it has just with information on the condition, which .
But the state is not alone in underfunding prevention efforts, according to advocates.
鈥淚 know we鈥檙e on the bottom of the pile on this, but what money is out there for diabetes is just a pittance across the country, when you look at the size of the problem of diabetes,鈥� said Michael Chae, executive director of the American Diabetes Association鈥檚 regional office in Oakland, Calif. 鈥淚鈥檇 say you could take this report for most large states and it would read similarly.鈥�
Diabetes is a chronic disease that occurs when the body either cannot make enough insulin聽to control blood sugar (type 1) or cannot process insulin normally (type 2). Although diabetes can be controlled with medications and lifestyle changes including diet and exercise, the yearly health care and related costs of the disease have been estimated at $27.5 billion in California alone, according to the American Diabetes Association.
The state auditor鈥檚 report acknowledged that the state public health agency appropriately spends its federal dollars. It also recently received new federal grants for diabetes prevention efforts in four counties. But the report faulted the agency for not doing more to identify additional funding and for not expanding programs to other counties with high diabetes rates. Auditors were able to identify two additional federal grants totaling $1 million that the state could have applied for but did not.
The auditor described the public health agency鈥檚 stated goal of preventing diabetes in 380,000 people by 2022 as 鈥渓ofty.鈥� It concluded, however, 聽that the agency 鈥渨ill need to do more than it has been able to in the past with its limited funding.鈥�
Nationwide, and about each year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. California adults report they have been diagnosed with diabetes and many others are considered to have the disease but do not know it. Still others are considered to be at high risk, or 鈥減rediabetic,鈥� based on their blood sugar levels.
Chae and other diabetes advocates said they have tried repeatedly over the years to persuade 聽lawmakers to devote state money to diabetes prevention, to little avail.
It鈥檚 challenging to convince lawmakers and the public to devote more money to diabetes prevention, Chae said, because the disease is often unfairly characterized as a lifestyle problem caused by poor choices such as unhealthful eating and inadequate exercise. In addition, it progresses slowly, and symptoms are often invisible for years.
However, years of state reliance on federal grants alone has resulted in uncoordinated programs and staffers who come and go as the grants do, said Joan Werblun, a retired nurse and longtime advocate who helped found the .
鈥淲hen you get these grants, you鈥檙e so tied into the specifics of the grants, and most of the time, it鈥檚 about data collection on how the grant is going,鈥� Werblun said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 where the money鈥檚 going. The state鈥檚 very happy to point at their projects, but they鈥檙e very small and there鈥檚 no continuation when the money鈥檚 gone. What we need are more people in the communities doing the work.鈥�