“Pre-diabetes,” diabetes rising among U.S. teens
The percentage of U.S. teenagers with “pre-diabetes” or full-blown type 2 diabetes has more than doubled in recent years - though obesity and other heart risk factors have held steady, government researchers reported Monday.
The good news, the researchers say, is that teen obesity rates leveled off between 1999 and 2008 - hovering between 18 percent and 20 percent over the years.
Rates of high blood pressure and high LDL cholesterol (the “bad” kind) also remained steady.
But the picture was different with so-called pre-diabetes and with type 2 diabetes. Those conditions were seen in nine percent of teens in 1999-2000, but that figure rose to 23 percent in 2007-2008, the researchers report in the journal Pediatrics.
“That was unexpected, especially since obesity has been leveling off,” said lead researcher Ashleigh May, of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“The question of why that is will require more research,” May told Reuters Health.
Pre-diabetes refers to higher-than-normal blood sugar levels. It’s concerning, May said, because people with pre-diabetes have a heightened risk of developing type 2 diabetes, which is a major risk factor for heart disease, stroke and kidney disease.
Total prevalence of diabetes
Total: 25.8 million children and adults in the United States—8.3% of the population—have diabetes.
Diagnosed: 18.8 million people
Undiagnosed: 7.0 million people
Prediabetes: 79 million people*
New Cases: 1.9 million new cases of diabetes are diagnosed in people aged 20 years and older in 2010.
* In contrast to the 2007 National Diabetes Fact Sheet, which used fasting glucose data to estimate undiagnosed diabetes and prediabetes, the 2011 National Diabetes Fact Sheet uses both fasting glucose and A1C levels to derive estimates for undiagnosed diabetes and prediabetes. These tests were chosen because they are most frequently used in clinical practice.
Under 20 years of age
- 215,000, or 0.26% of all people in this age group have diabetes
- About 1 in every 400 children and adolescents has diabetes
Age 20 years or older
- 25.6 million, or 11.3% of all people in this age group have diabetes
Age 65 years or older
- 10.9 million, or 26.9% of all people in this age group have diabetes
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Data from the 2011 National Diabetes Fact Sheet (released Jan. 26, 2011)
This study did not separate pre-diabetes from type 2 diabetes, so it’s not clear how much of the rise was in full-blown diabetes, May said.
But in the past the CDC has estimated that between 2002 and 2005, the yearly rate of new type 2 diabetes diagnoses was 8.5 for every 100,000 kids ages 10 to 19.
Type 2 diabetes is closely associated with age, and middle-aged and older adults still account for most cases. In the U.S., it’s estimated that almost 26 million people have diabetes - mostly type 2. Adults age 65 and up account for about 11 million of those cases.
At one time, type 2 diabetes was almost unheard of in children. But with the rise in childhood obesity in recent decades, more kids have been diagnosed with that form of diabetes, or its potential precursor pre-diabetes.
Unhealthy blood sugar levels - or blood pressure or cholesterol levels - may not affect a teenager right away. But the concern, May noted, is that those things tend to “track” into adulthood, when they may contribute to heart attacks or stroke.
“It’s promising that we didn’t see a rise in obesity or hypertension or (high LDL),” May said. “But we still have a lot of work to do.”
The results are based on a national sample of almost 3,400 teenagers who had physical exams and blood tests between 1999 and 2008.
How many Americans have diabetes and prediabetes?
- 25.8 million Americans have diabetes - 8.3 percent of the U.S. population. Of these, 7 million do not know they have the disease.
- In 2010, about 1.9 million people ages 20 or older were diagnosed with diabetes.
- The number of people diagnosed with diabetes has risen from 1.5 million in 1958 to 18.8 million in 2010, an increase of epidemic proportions.
- It is estimated that 79 million adults aged 20 and older have prediabetes. Prediabetes is a condition where blood glucose levels are higher than normal but not high enough to be called diabetes. Studies have shown that by losing weight and increasing physical activity people can prevent or delay prediabetes from progressing to diabetes.
View the CDC’s National Diabetes Fact Sheet, 2011.
Rates of obesity remained stable over the years, landing at 20 percent by 2008. Another 15 percent of kids were overweight.