T2DM is one of the most common chronic diseases in Germany. The expected demographic changes in Germany will increase the burden on the German health system caused by T2DM.

OBJECTIVES:To compare the quality of diabetes care across non-Hispanic whites and Blacks and Hispanics in the United States using selected American Diabetes Association standards of care. There are few studies using large federal databases evaluating disparities among racial/ethnic groups in diabetes care. The last one was conducted using the Medication Expenditure Panel Survey 2000-2001 cohort. This study provides a more comprehensive assessment of the Standards. METHODS: Data from the National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey 2009-2010 cohort was used to compare quality markers such as diabetes-related access to care (physician and diabetes specialists visits), medical care (self-monitoring, treatment, dietary habits, laboratories) and co-morbidities (prevalence, treatment and monitoring) across the racial/ ethnic groups. We used one-way ANOVA and chi-square test to compare continuous and discrete variables across Whites, Blacks, Hispanics and other. RESULTS: Overall this group had a mean age of 61Ϯ14, 51% were male, 60% had no more than a high school diploma, and 55% had an income Ͻ$35,000. Only age and education level were different across groups(pϽ0.05). Average blood pressure and total cholesterol levels were at goal except for hemoglobin A1c which was 7.3%Ϯ1.7 and different across groups(pϭ0.003). We found that the use of insulin, frequency of blood glucose monitoring, foot and exam in the last year, nurse educator/nutritionist/dietitian visits, and diabetic retinopathy, hypertension and hyperlipidemia diagnoses were significantly different across groups(all pϽ0.05). CONCLUSIONS: A possible relationship between race/ethnicity and adherence to various standards of diabetes care may exist. A more rigorous epidemiologic study is needed to confirm our findings.