New Trends In Childhood Diabetes

Study Exposes New Trends In Childhood Diabetes

The number of non-Hispanic white youth diagnosed with type 1 diabetes is one of the highest in the world, a national study coordinated by Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center reported Friday.

The study was the largest one of its kind in U.S history conducted for youth with diabetes. Study centers across the country researched trends in patients of different races who were diagnosed with diabetes before age 20.

“One in about 4,200 non-Hispanic white youth develops type 1 diabetes annually,” said 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.”

Diabetes Care magazine published the findings in a series of five articles that examined the results of the study in different ages and races.

Dr. Elizabeth Mayer-Davis, a professor of nutrition at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Public Health, concluded that 50 percent of black youth age 15 years or older have poorly controlled blood sugar, a major risk factor for long-term, serious complications including vision-threatening eye disease, kidney disease and heart disease.

Dr. Dana Dabeleaan, associate professor in the department of epidemiology at the University of Colorado Denver, said that of all racial and ethnic groups in the study, Navajo youth have the greatest risk of type 2 diabetes: one in 2,542 develop diabetes annually.

Dr. Ann Albright, the director of the Division of Diabetes Translation said that treatment for diabetes is urgently needed. “We must assure that every child with diabetes receives care to prevent the development kidney failure, sight-threatening retinopathy or premature cardiovascular diseases,” she said.

“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 Dr. Barbara Linder, senior advisor for Childhood Diabetes Research.

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