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Minority Teens' Risk For Diabetes Found to Be High

By AMIR EFRATI
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
June 7, 2004; Page B7

A study of eighth graders from several U.S. schools with large minority populations found that 40% were already showing signs of developing Type 2 diabetes, a form of the disease that years ago was seen only in adults.The study -- of 1,700 students in Texas, North Carolina and California -- was presented at the American Diabetes Association meeting on Friday in Orlando, Fla. More than half the eighth graders were overweight or had cholesterol, blood pressure or blood glucose abnormalities, placing them at high risk for diabetes and heart complications. Three-fourths of the students were Hispanic or African-American, groups at greater risk for developing diabetes.Many of the children had pre-diabetes, a precursor to the disease in which blood glucose levels are higher than normal but not high enough for a diagnosis for diabetes. Some actual cases of diabetes were also found in the students, who were tested last year in their schools. Researchers drew their blood twice and checked their blood pressure and body-mass index, a height-to-weight ratio used to determine obesity.Until recent years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had not traced the number of Type 2 diabetes cases in children. In the latest CDC estimates, 206,000 people under 20 had diabetes, with Type 2 comprising a great majority of the cases. Obesity was linked to 80% of the Type 2 cases.

According to the American Diabetes Association, 18.2 million Americans have diabetes, a group of diseases characterized by high blood-sugar levels resulting from the body's inability to produce and use insulin. Some 17 million have Type 2 of the disease. Diabetes can lead to complications such as heart disease, blindness, kidney disease and amputations.

Francine Kaufman, head of the Center for Diabetes and Endocrinology at the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles and chair of the eighth-graders study, estimated that there has been a 10-fold increase in childhood Type 2 diabetes cases in the past 20 years."There doesn't seem to be a ceiling for these numbers right now," she said.Public awareness has so far failed to halt the rise in childhood obesity. Some doctors argue that even if young kids are taught to eat healthily at school they are being given an "empty message" since most schools sell vending-machine candy and have snack lines that don't meet federal requirements. In addition, they say, physical-education classes aren't vigorous enough.Dr. Kaufman's project, Studies to Treat or Prevent Pediatric Type 2 Diabetes, is trying to come up with a plan for schools to change those environmental factors and help students to change their own habits.

Another study presented at the meeting, from the United Kingdom, found that parents often don't know that their children are overweight.

 

© 2004 The Wall Street Journal .  All Rights Reserved.