Diabetes Rising In Young Americans, Study Finds



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(Refiles to add the missing letter in the 9th paragraph)

By Robin Respaut and Chad Terhune

Aug 24 (Reuters) – The number of young people with the most common form of diabetes nearly doubled in the United States from 2001 to 2017, according to a study released Tuesday.

The results showed that the rate of young people aged 10 to 19 with type 2 diabetes increased by 95% over the 16-year period. The estimated rate of young people under 20 with type 1 diabetes has increased by 45%.

“Rising rates of diabetes, especially type 2 diabetes, which is preventable, has the potential to create a cascade of poor health outcomes,” said Dr Giuseppina Imperatore, who oversees disease surveillance and other areas within the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention division. of the translation of diabetes.

This month, Reuters released a special report https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-diabetes-covid on worsening outcomes for people with diabetes in the United States.

The new findings come from the SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth study, funded by the CDC and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

One in 10 Americans, or 34 million people, has diabetes in the United States. About 1.6 million people have type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease of unknown cause that requires insulin injections when the pancreas stops producing the hormone. Millions more suffer from type 2 diabetes, a chronic disease in which the body either does not make enough insulin or does not use it well.

Researchers have found significant increases in diabetes in both sexes and among racial and ethnic groups.

Type 1 diabetes remains more common in young whites. Larger increases in type 2 prevalence have been seen in black or Hispanic youth, according to the study https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2783420 published in JAMA. The highest rates of type 2 diabetes have been observed in black and Native American youth.

Jean M. Lawrence, lead author of the article and director of the NIH Diabetes Epidemiology Program, said more research is needed to better understand what is driving these increases.

“The increasing prevalence of type 2 diabetes could be caused by increasing rates of childhood obesity, in utero exposure to maternal obesity and diabetes, or increased diabetes screenings,” said Lawrence.

The COVID-19 pandemic has also hit people with diabetes particularly hard, including those who have never fallen ill with the virus but have been victims of the isolation and disruption it has caused.

Reuters in the special report found that deaths from diabetes rose 17% last year to more than 100,000. The youngest, those aged 25 to 44, suffered the largest increase, with a 29% increase in deaths. By comparison, all other deaths, except those directly attributed to the coronavirus, rose 6% last year, Reuters found.

Also on Tuesday, a US government-backed disease prevention panel recommended https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-panel-urges-diabetes-screening-begin-sooner-age-35 -2021-08-24 that overweight or obese adults should be screened for prediabetes and type 2 diabetes from age 35, lowering the age of five. (Reporting by Robin Respaut in San Francisco and Chad Terhune in Los Angeles; Editing by Sandra Maler)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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