The rates for adolescent type 2 diabetes have been on the rise for a while. But even so, researchers were surprised at the unexpected high rates of adolescent type 2 diabetes across nearly all racial and ethnic groups. More and more adolescent diabetes symptoms are showing up in teenagers across the U.S.
The findings were presented as part of the SEARCH multi-center study. SEARCH was funded by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in conjunction with the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Its charter mission is to study the diabetes symptoms in teenagers by looking at the children and adolescents in the U.S. who have diabetes in an effort to help everyone to better understand the disease. The study’s goals are to track the number of adolescents under 20 with type 2 and type 1 diabetes and chart their differences and similarities by race, ethnicity, types of medical care and treatment, and how their disease affects the lives of people around them.
The study just release show unexpectedly high rates of adolescent type 2 diabetes in the studied group.
Adolescent type 2 diabetes is rare in the non-Hispanic white population but the incidence of type 1 diabetes among this group is one of the highest in the world.
Among the American Hispanic adolescent girls, the incidence of type 2 diabetes is higher than that of type 1 diabetes is higher than type 1 diabetes. The same, however, is not true for boys.
Adolescent type 2 diabetes among African Americans girls was about the same as white girls. However, the incidence of type 1 diabetes in this group is higher. The study did note, however, that almost half of African Americans in the study of age 15 and older had poorly controlled blood sugar. This is significant because it is a long term precursor for developing diabetes in later life.
The study of Asian and Pacific Islander adolescents revealed that they have both a high incidence of obesity and type 2 diabetes. And, as precious studies have shown, their rates of type 1 diabetes were higher than that of adolescents in Asia and the Western Pacific Region.
Of all the demographics followed, the adolescent group with the highest incidence of type 2 diabetes were the Navajo. This group, in common with a cross section group of adolescent with pre-diabetes or type 2 diabetes, had high-fat diets and sedentary lifestyles.
Find more information see the SEARCH study in the March supplement of Diabetes Care.