First cases of type 2 diabetes found in white UK teenagers
BMJ 2002; 324 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.324.7336.506/a (Published 02 March 2002) Cite this as: BMJ 2002;324:506The trend towards obesity in British children has produced the country's first recognised cases of type 2 diabetes in white adolescents. The illness has been diagnosed in three girls aged from 13 to 15 and a boy aged 15, according to an article in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood (2002;86:207-8).
The children, who were referred to treatment centres in Bristol and Southampton, were all clinically obese. Type 2 diabetes has already been noted in children of Asian and African origin, but the white population seems less susceptible to the disease.
Dr Julian Shield, one of the authors, fears that children are unlikely to be diagnosed before damage has occurred to the pancreas. “This phenomenon is likely to become increasingly common,” he said. “It is essential that clinicians appreciate the risk of clinical and unrecognised type 2 diabetes associated with obesity in white children as well as those from high risk populations, as early investigation and treatment may delay the onset of complications.”
Dr Shield warned that an earlier age of onset is liable to result in a higher rate of complications such as high blood pressure and blindness. He predicts that the incidence will rise in parallel with the growing rate of childhood obesity, placing an increasing strain on the health system. In the year 2000, according to Diabetes UK, the NHS spent £5.2bn ($7.5bn; €8.3bn) treating diabetes and its complications—which represents 9% of the healthcare budget.
Obesity rates have doubled among British children since 1982, and tripled in adults. Professor Edwin Gale, a diabetes expert at Southmead Hospital in Bristol, said that the disease is developing at earlier ages throughout the industrialised world. “Traditionally, the median age at diagnosis is about 60, but the entire age distribution curve is shifting to the left,” he said. “The most extreme scenario is in the United States, where the first cases of type 2 diabetes in white children aged under 10 are now being reported.” According to US research, type 2 diabetes now accounts for 30% of all new cases of diabetes diagnosed in American teenagers (Diabetes Care 1999; 22:345-54).
The European Association for the Study of Diabetes predicts that the number of new cases of diabetes worldwide will double to 270 million people by 2010, of whom four million will be British.
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