Why Do We Need CUNY Campaign Against Diabetes?

Diabetes is becoming an epidemic nationally and in New York City. To address this epidemic, the City University of New York’s Urban Health Collaborative, a group of CUNY faculty and students from public health, nursing, nutrition, psychology, sociology and other disciplines joined with CUNY to develop the CUNY Campaign Against Diabetes , a five year plan to strengthen the university’s and the city’s ability to bring diabetes under control. The Campaign is activating CUNY’s unique assets: more than 200,000 students from the communities most affected by diabetes; professional programs, nurses, public health professionals and social workers; dozens of researchers already engaged in addressing the city’s most serious health and social problems; and a mission to serve New York. The Campaign also provides a model for improving public health while increasing the educational and research capacities of CUNY.

The diabetes epidemic and the associated epidemics of obesity and physical inactivity threaten public health, social justice, economic productivity, and the capacity of the city’s hospitals and social service agencies to respond to current and emerging needs.

Diabetes in New York City

• More than 1 in 8 New Yorkers has diabetes and the city’s rate is a third higher than the US rate.
  
  
• In the past 8 years, diabetes has doubled among adults in the city.
  
  
• The diabetes disparities between blacks, Latinos and whites are widening, worsening the already large gap in health status among these groups.
  
  
• Among New Yorkers 18–39 years of age, Hispanics are 4 times more likely to have diabetes than whites and Asians.

For reports from the Forum on Diabetes Policy for NYC: Comprehensive Approaches to Prevention and Management, click here .

Download Diabetes Posters

Want to print or use some of our elegant flyers and posters? Download here.