The number of people diagnosed with diabetes has been on the rise for decades, but the Zionsville Lions Club is hoping to help stop that trend.
The club will host a community informational meeting on diabetes from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Feb. 15 at the Zionsville Lions Clubhouse, 115 S. Elm St. The meeting will cover information about diabetes, risk factors, steps to treat the disease and more.
“Diabetes is a new initiative of the Lions Club International. It really starts at the top,” said Dr. Mel Prince, a club member and retired senior medical director at Lilly Diabetes who will speak at the meeting. “The international organization really wants to confront diabetes, which is a global health emergency, mainly through education and raising awareness.”
In 1958 .93 percent of the U.S. population suffered from diabetes, but that number jumped to 7.4 percent in 2015, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The percentage is expected to continue rising in the future, as 84.1 million Americans in 2015 had been diagnosed with prediabetes, a condition that indicates a person is at risk of developing diabetes. Experts say that many more have diabetes or prediabetes and don’t know it.
In Indiana, diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death and approximately 750,000 Hoosiers have the disease, according to information from the Zionsville Lions Club.
The community meeting is free and open to the public. Prince said it will be the first of many initiatives by the Zionsville Lions Club to educate the community about diabetes.
To learn more about the meeting, email [email protected] or call 317-873-5540. Take a test to determine your risk of developing diabetes at diabetes.org/are-you-at-risk/diabetes-risk-test.
