Nearly half of people with diabetes don't know they have it, new study finds

When was the last time you had your blood sugar checked? It might be worth looking into, a new study says.

Forty-four percent of people age 15 and older living with diabetes are undiagnosed, so they don’t know they have it, according to data analysis published Monday in the journal The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology .

The study looked at data from 204 countries and territories from 2000 to 2023 in a systematic review of published literature and surveys. The findings at the global level are for people age 15 and older.

“The majority of people with diabetes that we report on in the study have type 2 diabetes,” said Lauryn Stafford, the lead author of the study.

Around 1 in 9 adults live with diabetes worldwide, according to the International Diabetes Foundation. In the United States