Kaiser Permanente Riverside and the American Diabetes Association (ADA) Riverside office are partnering together to encourage people to find out their risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The public is encouraged to take the ADA’s diabetes risk test at www.diabetes.org/risktest. The risk test with eight questions covering such topics as weight, age and family history takes less than 60 seconds to complete.
"Diabetes is a serious disease, and we are partnering with the American Diabetes Association on a deeper level this year to raise awareness and prompt action particularly by those at risk,” said Frank M. Flowers, Jr., MD, Kaiser Permanente area medical director for the Riverside area. “We encourage people to engage in preventative behaviors like weight loss, physical activity and healthy eating which can help to significantly prevent onset of Type 2 Diabetes.”
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The risk test promotion is part of the ADA’s Alert Day, an annual promotion held on the fourth Tuesday in March. This year’s ADA’s Alert Day on March 25 will be the ADA’s 26th annual Alert Day.
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“Alert Day becomes a wake-up call for many people,” said Larissa Roman, executive director of the ADA office in Riverside. “Diagnosis of diabetes often comes seven to 10 years after the onset of the disease. Increased awareness and early diagnosis is critical to successful treatment and delaying or preventing some of the complications, such as heart disease, blindness, kidney disease, stroke, amputation and death.”
Roman said an estimated 26 million Americans have diabetes, including about 188,000 Riverside County residents, and, on average, as many as 25 percent of people with diabetes are not aware they have the disease. She said studies have shown that type 2 diabetes can be prevented or delayed by losing 7 percent of body weight, which equals 15 pounds for a 200-pound person, and with regular exercise of 30 minutes per day, seven days a week.
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About Kaiser Permanente Riverside
Kaiser Permanente opened its medical center in Riverside in 1989 and its hospital in Moreno Valley in 2008. Currently, we provide care for over 375,000 members throughout Riverside County. Over 480 physicians care for our members at 9 medical facilities and at Kaiser Permanente’s Riverside Medical Center and Moreno Valley Medical Center. Riverside Medical Center is licensed for 226 beds. Moreno Valley Medical Center has 101 licensed beds.
About Kaiser Permanente Southern California
Kaiser Permanente is committed to helping shape the future of health care. We are recognized as one of America’s leading health care providers and not-for-profit health plans. Founded in 1945, our mission is to provide high quality, affordable health care services and to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve. We currently serve more than 3.6 million members in Southern California. Care for members and patients is focused on their total health and guided by their personal physicians, specialists and team of caregivers. Our expert and caring medical teams are empowered and supported by industry-leading technology advances and tools for health promotion, disease prevention, state-of-the-art care delivery and world-class chronic disease management. Kaiser Permanente is dedicated to care innovations, clinical research, health education and the support of community health. For more information, go to: kp.org/share.
