Health experts have long been concerned of the growing prevalence of diabetes. In the United States, the number of people diagnosed with the disease has increased from 1.5 million in 1958 to 18.8 million in 2010 and while the condition affects adults more often, there is reason to be concerned about diabetes in children and young adults as well.
In a new study published in the May 7 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), researchers looked at the changes in the prevalence of Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes in the US among young patients by age, gender, ethnicity and race between the years 2001 and 2009 by analyzing the data of more than three million children and younger adults 20 years old and younger from select American Indian reservations as well as in Ohio, South Carolina, California, Colorado and Washington.
The researchers found that the number of children and young adults with type 1 diabetes has increased by 21. 1 percent from 2001 and 2009 and increase was observed in black, white, Hispanic and Asian Pacific Islander youths. Type 1 diabetes used to be known as juvenile diabetes because it often occurs in children and young adults.
The number of kids and teens diagnosed with type 2 diabetes has also increased by about 30 percent for the same period. The increase was observed in Hispanic, white and black youths but not in American Indian and Asian Pacific Islander youths.
Research authors said that further studies are needed to determine what causes the increasing prevalence of diabetes in children and young adults in the U.S. Nonetheless, they provided possible reasons why a growing number of children develop Type 2 diabetes, a lifestyle-associated disease which often appears in adults.
"Most likely are real changes in population risk for type 2 diabetes, such as minority population growth, obesity, exposure to diabetes in utero, and perhaps endocrine-disrupting chemicals," wrote study author Dana Dabelea, from the Department of Epidemiology at the Colorado School of Public Health, and colleagues. "Similarly, changing awareness of type 2 diabetes in youth leading to different diagnostic practices may have contributed to the increase."
Unlike type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, which affects up to 95 percent of all diabetes cases, is preventable. It can be avoided by making healthy food choices and engaging in physical activities.
