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Thousands of American Teens Have Type 2 Diabetes
According to a study conducted by University of Washington researchers, around 39,000 American teenagers have type 2 diabetes and more than 2.5 million may have impaired fasting glucose levels. The study was lead by Dr Glen Duncanand was published in the May issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Approximately 18.2 million American citizens have diabetes, including 210,000 individuals younger than age 20. Type 2 diabetes, which occurs when the body cannot use the insulin that it manufactures to break down glucose in the body, is considered an emerging problem among teenagers, especially those suffering from obesity. With obesity, a blood glucose level that is higher than normal, but one not high enough for a diagnosis of diabetes, commonly among young people.
For this study, the data from a national survey conducted in 1999-2002 on 4,370 teenagers was used. Of these teenagers, about 71 per cent had type 1 diabetes and 29 per cent had type 2 diabetes. The team also tested glucose levels in 1,496 teenagers who had not been diagnosed with the condition - around 11 per cent of these teenagers had impaired fasting glucose levels.
When considered as a sample of the entire population of US teenagers, these numbers are equivalent to 134,071 individuals age 12 to 19 years with diabetes, 39,005 with type 2 diabetes and 2,769,736 with impaired fasting glucose levels.
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