Posted Mar 12, 2009
Rates of diabetes are significantly higher than expected among children and adolescents from five ethnic and racial groups in the United States, according to findings by UNC-Chapel Hill researchers and others.
The results are outlined in a supplement to the March issue of the journal Diabetes Care. The study examined non-Hispanic white, Hispanic, African-American, Asian and Pacific Islander and Navajo youth. Elizabeth Mayer-Davis, professor of nutrition in the UNC Gillings School of Global Health and the UNC School of Medicine, was the national study chairwoman.
Diabetes affects the body’s ability to produce or respond properly to insulin, a hormone that allows blood glucose to enter cells and be used for energy. Because they have the disease longer, people who develop diabetes in childhood have a higher risk of complications than people who develop it as adults.
Among the study’s findings:
–Each year, one in 4,200 non-Hispanic white youths develops Type 1 diabetes.
–More than one-third of Hispanic youth ages 15 to 19 has poor glycemic control, increasing risk for diabetes-related complications.
–About half of African-American youths 15 and older have poorly controlled blood sugar — a major risk factor.
–Asian and Pacific Islander youth have a high risk of obesity and Type 2 diabetes.
–American Indian and Navajo Nation youth have a risk of Type 2 diabetes of one in 2,542.
Date: Mar 6, 2009
Editor’s Note: Type 1 diabetes occurs as the result of an autoimmune attack on the body’s insulin producing cells in the pancreas. This leaves the child without any insulin and they must take insulin injections daily. Type 2 diabetes used to be rare in children, but today’s obesity epidemic has increased the number of children who have this disease. In type 2 diabetes they still produce insulin, but their body becomes more resistant to it. Usually diet and exercise can control type 2 diabetes.
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Copyright © 2009, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.
