Alarming statistics about childhood diabetes revealed

Winston-Salem, North Carolina, February 28: The latest results from the largest-ever national surveillance of youth with diabetes depict an alarming picture of disease among different groups in the United States. It has called for immediate public health efforts to curb obesity and diabetes among Asian and Pacific Island children. Picture: Get original file (15KB) Full Article: Researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center (WFUBMC) revealed an alarming trend of type 1 diabetes among the non-Hispanic white youth in the US. The findings revealed that the incidence rate of type 1 diabetes in children and adolescents from ethnic and racial groups, including non-Hispanic whites, Hispanics, blacks, Asian/Pacific Islanders, and American Indians/Navajo Nation is one of the highest in the world. “One in about 4,200 non-Hispanic white youth develops type 1 diabetes annually,” stated Dr. Ronny A. Bell, an associate professor of epidemiology and prevention at WFUBMC. “This rate is higher than all previously reported U.S. studies and many European studies. Type 2 diabetes is relatively rare in non-Hispanic white youth, but incidence rates are still several-fold higher than those reported by European countries,” Dr. Bell added. The study named SEARCH includes findings from ongoing diabetes-monitoring efforts at multiple locations, including Hawaii. The results of the study were based on the trends in patients of different races across the country, diagnosed with diabetes before age 20. The findings appearing in a series of five articles in the March supplement of Diabetes Care magazine unveil a comprehensive picture of diabetes among the American youth. It has been found that rates of Type 1 diabetes in Asian and Pacific Islanders under age 14 in the US are at least three times higher than the rates in Asian populations. “We found that type 1 diabetes is more common than type 2 diabetes in Hispanic American youth of all ages,” said Dr. Jean Lawrence, ScD, the principal investigator for the study at Kaiser Permanente Southern California. “However, in youth ages 15-19 the incidence of type 2 diabetes is higher than that of type 1 diabetes in girls but not boys. We also found that over a third of the youth in this oldest age group with either type 1 or type 2 diabetes had poor glycemic control, which increases their risk for future diabetes-related complications,” added Dr. Lawrence, who is also Research Scientist and Epidemiologist in the Department of Research and Evaluation at Kaiser Permanente Southern California. At least one in 8,200 Asian and Pacific Islander youth between ages 10 and 19 is diagnosed with type 2 diabetes every year. “The risk of obesity and Type 2 diabetes in Asian and Pacific Islander adolescents is high compared to Caucasian populations and most ethnic minorities,” stated Beatriz L. Rodriguez MD, PhD, Professor of the University of Hawaii’s John A. Burns School of Medicine and Principal Investigator of the SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth site in Hawaii. “The rates of Type 2 diabetes are also substantially higher when compared to reports from Japan and Taiwan,” Rodriguez added. “These findings, which show unexpectedly high rates of childhood diabetes, paint a sobering picture of the heavy burden of diabetes on our young people,” said Barbara Linder, M.D., Ph.D., the senior advisor for Childhood Diabetes Research at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), part of the National Institutes of Health. “The new SEARCH data fill an important gap in our knowledge and will help guide future research and target efforts to improve the prevention and treatment of diabetes and its complications,” Linder maintained. “The need for effective interventions to prevent new cases of diabetes is urgent,” said Ann Albright, Ph.D, the director of the Division of Diabetes Translation, part of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Diabetes in childhood increases the risk for complications including premature cardiovascular diseases, kidney failure or sight-threatening retinopathy due to longer duration of the disease. “We also must assure that every child with diabetes receives care to prevent the development kidney failure, sight-threatening retinopathy or premature cardiovascular diseases,” Albright stressed.