'Diabetes Belt' Tightens Around the South

By Kristina Fiore, Staff Writer, MedPage Today

Much of the South and Appalachia fall into the newly defined "diabetes belt" identified by CDC researchers, a section of country that nearly parallels the so-called stroke belt.

The 644 counties in the diabetes belt have a significantly higher prevalence of the disease than the rest of the country: 11.7% versus 8.5%, according to Lawrence Barker, PhD, of the CDC, and colleagues, who reported their findings in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

The diabetes belt includes portions of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia.

That's very similar to the stroke belt, the researchers say, but there are a few differences. For instance, much of West Virginia falls in the diabetes belt but not in the stroke belt. Conversely, Indiana is part of the stroke belt but not the diabetes belt.
More

Fish May Explain Notches in Stroke Belt

By Todd Neale, Staff Writer, MedPage Today

Differences in fish consumption may help explain the existence of the so-called Stroke Belt covering eight states in the southeastern U.S., a cross-sectional study showed.

Residents of those states ate fewer servings of fish overall (2.01 versus a national average of 2.11 per week), and when they do consume fish, it is most often fried (0.68 servings of fried fish versus 0.62 servings nationwide per week), Fadi Nahab, MD, of Emory University in Atlanta, and colleagues reported online ahead of the Jan. 11 print issue of Neurology.

Living in the Stroke Belt -- which includes North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Louisiana -- was independently associated with eating less than the recommended minimum of two servings of nonfried fish per week, even after adjustment for potential confounders (OR 1.32, 95% CI 1.17 to 1.50).
Full Article