"Without intervention, one in three children born in the year 2000 will develop diabetes in their lifetime," said Dr. Frank Vinicor, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's diabetes division. "For some of us, the risk is even higher. If that child is Hispanic and female, she has a one in two chance of developing diabetes in her lifetime. We need to get the word out that type 2 diabetes can be prevented."

Pre-diabetes may be called impaired fasting glucose (IFG) or impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), depending on the test used to diagnose it. Some people have both IFG and IGT.

IFG is a condition in which the blood sugar level is high (100 to 125 milligrams per deciliter or mg/dL) after an overnight fast but not high enough to be classified as diabetes. (The former definition of IFG was 110 mg/dl to 125 mg/dl.)

IGT is a condition in which the blood sugar level is high (140 to 199 mg/dL) after a 2-hour oral glucose tolerance test, but is not high enough to be classified as diabetes. (The ADA expert committee did not change the definition of IGT.)

The new estimate of people with pre-diabetes is detailed in the latest National Diabetes Fact Sheet, released today by HHS' CDC and NIDDK. The estimates were calculated using data from the 1988-1994 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and projected to the 2000 U.S. population.

The National Diabetes Fact Sheet provides up-to-date information about diabetes, its prevalence, incidence, complications and costs to the nation. Overall, about 18.2 million Americans currently have diabetes, with about 1.3 million new cases being diagnosed each year. Most of these individuals - 90 percent to 95 percent - have type 2 diabetes, which is associated with older age, obesity, physical inactivity and ethnicity. The fact sheet is available at www.cdc/diabetes/pubs/factsheet.htm or by calling 1-877-CDC-DIAB (232-3422).