Type 1 Diabetes Rates Rising Among White Youth

The rate of type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) among non-Hispanic white youth increased significantly over an 8-year period, a study published October 23, 2014, in Diabetes reports.

According to data from the SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth registry, the T1DM diagnosis rate rose from 24.4 per 100,000 youth in 2002 to 27.4 per 100,000 in 2009. The study data comprised more than 2 million children and adolescents from throughout the United States, including 5842 non-Hispanic white youth newly diagnosed with T1DM during the 8-year period.

The researchers found more pronounced increases in diabetes incidence among children aged 5 to 9 years and smaller increases among those aged 10 to 19 years, though there was no increase among children aged 4 and younger.

The rate of increase in T1DM incidence was slightly higher for boys than for girls, the investigators added.

“These trends will continue to be monitored in the US by the SEARCH study to help identify trends in type 1 diabetes in non-Hispanic white youth and youth from other racial and ethnic groups, and to identify potential causes of these increases,” said lead study author Jean M. Lawrence, ScD, of the Kaiser Permanente Southern California Department of Research & Evaluation, in a press release. “We have been seeing more children being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes over the 8 years of this study, and these children will require specialized health care as they enter young adulthood.”