Diabetes Prevalence Among Racial-Ethnic Minority Group Members With Severe Mental Illness Taking Antipsychotics: Double Jeopardy?

Objective: This study assessed differences in diabetes prevalence based on race-ethnicity among people with severe mental illnesses.

Methods: This retrospective cohort study examined diabetes prevalence in 2009 among California Medicaid enrollees with severe mental illness who were screened for diabetes (N=19,364). Poisson regression assessed differences in diabetes prevalence by race-ethnicity. The sample was standardized to the U.S.

Population:

Results: The overall prevalence of diabetes was 32.0%. The adjusted prevalence for all minority groups with severe mental illness, except for Asians, was significantly higher than for whites (1.21-1.28 adjusted prevalence ratios). With inverse probability weighting to reduce selection bias captured by measured factors, estimated prevalence of diabetes among screened participants was 27.3%.

Conclusions: The prevalence of diabetes in minority groups with severe mental illness was significantly higher than among whites with severe mental illness. Mental health administrators should implement universal diabetes screening with specific outreach efforts targeting minority populations with severe mental illness.