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The number of people being diagnosed with diabetes in the U.S. is increasing at a tremendous pace. But the good news is that now people are better equipped to take care of their health after a diabetes diagnosis. A new study has found that good diabetes management has increased from being 2 percent in 1988 to 19 percent in 2010.

The data for the study came from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys from 1988-1994 and 1999-2010.

People with diabetes need to manage their blood pressure and cholesterol levels and not just sugar levels (A1C), together known as ABCs of managing diabetes.

Researchers found that people have showed improvement in improving all three factors over the years, with 53 percent now meeting A1C goals, compared to 43 percent in 1988-1994; 51 percent showing improvements in blood pressure now than the 33 percent in 88-94; and 56 percent meeting cholesterol goals compared with 10 percent earlier.

"The most impressive finding was the significant improvement in diabetes management over time across all groups. However, we see a lot of room for improvement, for everyone, but particularly for younger people and some minority groups," said Catherine Cowie, the study's senior author from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), which conducted and funded the study.

Many people with diabetes have now started using statins, a type of drug that lowers cholesterol, with statin use being just 4 percent during 1988-1994 to 51 percent during 2007-2010. This increase may explain the improvement in cholesterol control in people with diabetes, according to a news release from National Institutes of Health.

The number of people being diagnosed with diabetes has tripled from 5.6 million in 1980 to 26.9 million in 2010. About 79 million have prediabetes, a condition that increases the risk of these people developing diabetes and heart disease.

The present study also found that young people between 20-49 years were less likely to control their blood sugar levels, which is very disturbing, given that these people have long life-expectancy.

And, fewer people from Mexican-American backgrounds are managing diabetes effectively when compared to blacks and whites (44 percent versus 53 percent).

"It is particularly disturbing that good control was seen less frequently in young people. Research has shown that good diabetes control early in the course of disease has long-lasting benefits reducing the risk of complications.  For people with long life expectancy after diagnosis of diabetes, it's especially important to focus on meeting diabetes management goals as early as possible, because with that longer life comes a greater chance of developing complications if they do not control their diabetes," said Judith Fradkin, M.D., director of the NIDDK Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolic Diseases.

The study is published in the journal Diabetes Care.