Healthcare: Diabetes in King County, Washington

This paper discusses the prevalence of diabetes in King County, Washington, its contributing factors, and potential solutions for prevention. It also supports the idea that there is variation in mortality rates depending on the location.

Running head: HEALTHCARE
NONPROFIT EXPERIENCE AND LEARNING
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Part 1
The majority of the population of Washington State resides in King County. Census
result have shown that about 1.9 million resides with 789 thousand homes comprising of 461
families. Inhabitants include 912.9 per square mile. The racial makeup of King County
includes 6.2 percent of African American, 64.8 percent of Non-Hispanic group, 14.8 percent
of Asian’s, 0.8 percent of Pacific Islander, 3.9 percent of other races and 0.8 percent of
Native Americans. Hispanic and Latino comprise 8.9 percent of the population ("King
County, Washington - King County", 2020). Out of the total household, 45.3 percent of the
population is married, 29.3 percent of the population are minor living with parents, 9.1
percent are female (unmarried), 31 percent are living individually in the house, and 41.5
percent of the population are non-families. The size of the household was found to be 2.40,
and the average size of the family was 3.05. The median age of the total population in King
County is 31 years.
The median income was found to be $68,000 and for the family was found to be
$87,010. Females had an income rate of $45761 in comparison to males, with an income of
$62,373 (Tang et al., 2016). It was found that 10 percent of the population and 6.4 percent of
the families are below the poverty line. As per 2018, the native-born citizen has a median age
of 35 years, which is less than the foreign-born with a median age of 41 years (Laymon et al.,
2015).
US Census Bureau suggested that the total area for King County is 2307 out of which
2116 square miles is land, and 191 square miles includes water. The topmost point in the
county is Mount Daniel, which is of 7959 feet above the sea level.
Two major health problems are perceiving in King County are diabetes and asthma.
This paper is structured to discuss diabetes. Public Health Data Watch summarized the data

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on the county that showed that people who have diabetes have increased in the past decade.
In recent years, diabetes have affected almost 84,000 adult population of the county
(American Diabetes Association, 2017). People dying from diabetes have also increased in
the last few years, making diabetes a serious concern about the place. In this county, the
assessed annual attributable costs for diabetes is $1,025 million. In King County, mostly the
African American gets affected with diabetes and have higher death rate more than whites
American’s of the county.
Two contributing factors for diabetes are obesity and family history. Obesity increases
the chances of developing type 2 diabetes. The obese person, the tissues of the fat, can
process more nutrients. Cell stress is triggered as an inflammation-causing the release of
proteins such as Cytokine (Powers et al., 2017). This Cytokine blocks the signals coming
from the insulin receptor cells and causing the cells to be more resistant towards insulin.
Insulin plays an important role in utilizing glucose for the production of energy. As the obese,
person gets resistant to insulin, the body cannot convert glucose to the energy that would
cause a fast increase in the blood glucose level. In an obese person, inflammation of cell
causes an increase in insulin as well as heart disease. Type 2 diabetes or prediabetes are
inherited. A person with family chances of diabetes is more likely to develop gestational
diabetes if the mother has diabetes during pregnancy (Miller et al., 2015). Generally, this kind
of diabetes affects Asian American, Pacific Islander, Hispanic or African American.
The different potential solution for diabetes prevention due to obesity is by changing
the food habit. The patient with type 2 diabetes due to obesity can reduce their sugar by
eating refined carbs or by cutting sugar from their diet (Davies et al., 2018). This lowers the
insulin level and blood sugar level in the blood. Exercise also keeps the blood sugar level
under control as exercise increases the sensitivity of the insulin of the cells; hence less
amount of insulin is necessary for keeping blood sugar in control. Losing weight helps in

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keeping blood sugar under control. Visceral fat is deposited due to excess weight leading to
inflammation and resistance towards insulin.
Family history diabetes can be prevented by regular exercise, a healthy diet and
lifestyle. It is recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), that a person with a
family history of diabetes must go for fasting sugar check-up every 3 years. Sunlight also
plays an important role in preventing diabetes (Insel et al., 2015).
As per the question from the professor, I do support the idea that, there is variation in
mortality rates depending on the location. The difference in mortality rates varies depending
on their cultural factors, minority population, lower income and risk factors that increases the
rates of morbidity and mortality. The same gradients can be seen within cities and counties
where neighborhoods and census tracts reflect similar patterns of health disparities. These
variances are together deceptive and persistent depending on the statistical comparisons and
controls.

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References
American Diabetes Association. (2017). 2. Classification and diagnosis of diabetes. Diabetes
care, 40(Supplement 1), S11-S24.
Davies, M. J., D’Alessio, D. A., Fradkin, J., Kernan, W. N., Mathieu, C., Mingrone, G., ... &
Buse, J. B. (2018). Management of hyperglycemia in type 2 diabetes, 2018. A
consensus report by the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and the European
Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD). Diabetes care, 41(12), 2669-2701.
Insel, R. A., Dunne, J. L., Atkinson, M. A., Chiang, J. L., Dabelea, D., Gottlieb, P. A., ... &
Ratner, R. E. (2015). Staging presymptomatic type 1 diabetes: a scientific statement
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King County, Washington - King County. (2020). Retrieved 24 February 2020, from
https://www.kingcounty.gov/
Miller, K. M., Foster, N. C., Beck, R. W., Bergenstal, R. M., DuBose, S. N., DiMeglio, L. A.,
... & Tamborlane, W. V. (2015). Current state of type 1 diabetes treatment in the US:
updated data from the T1D Exchange clinic registry. Diabetes care, 38(6), 971-978.
Powers, M. A., Bardsley, J., Cypress, M., Duker, P., Funnell, M. M., Fischl, A. H., ... &
Vivian, E. (2017). Diabetes self-management education and support in type 2
diabetes: a joint position statement of the American Diabetes Association, the
American Association of Diabetes Educators, and the Academy of Nutrition and
Dietetics. The Diabetes Educator, 43(1), 40-53