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Type 1 diabetes rate increased among non-Hispanic white youth
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From 2002 to 2009, the rate at which non-Hispanic white youth in the United States were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes increased significantly in every age group but the youngest, according to recent study findings.
Researchers used data from the SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth Study to calculate annual type 1 diabetes incidence per 100,000 person-years among non-Hispanic white youth younger than 20 years from 2002 to 2009. Overall, 5,842 participants with newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes were evaluated over the study period from a population of nearly 3 million children annually.
“Type 1 diabetes is the predominant form of diabetes diagnosed in childhood,” Jean M. Lawrence, ScD, MPH, MSSA, of the Kaiser Permanente Southern California Department of Research and Evaluation, said in a press release. “The incidence of type 1 diabetes has until quite recently been rising in many other countries, particularly in Europe, but data from large populations in the [United States] were limited. The SEARCH registry study provides a much larger and more geographically diverse sample than previous studies in the [United States].”
Jean M. Lawrence
From 2002 to 2009, the incidence of type 1 diabetes increased from 24.4 per 100,000 person-years to 27.4, a relative annual increase of 2.72% per year.
Significant increases were found among participants aged 5 to 9 years (P=.002), 10 to 14 years (P<.001) and 15 to 19 years (P=.004); however, no significant increase was found among participants aged 0 to 4 years (P=.019).
Among males, incidence increased from 25.9 per 100,000 person-years in 2002 to 26.7 in 2009 (mean annual increase of 2.84%) and from 22.8 to 26.7 among females (mean annual increase of 2.57%).
Significant increases were found among male participants aged 5 to 9 years (P=.006) and 10 to 14 years (P=.02); however, not among those aged 0 to 4 years (P=.075) or 15 to 19 years (P=.08). Significant increases were found among female participants aged 5 to 9 years (P=.001) and 10 to 14 years (P=.004), whereas a significant decrease was found among those aged 0 to 4 years (P=.03) and no change among those aged 15 to 19 years (P=.43).
“Our findings indicate that the rates of type 1 diabetes in non-Hispanic white youth are increasing,” Lawrence told Endocrine Today. “These trends will continue to be monitored in the United States by the SEARCH study to determine if the rates are continuing to change. We will also examine the rate of type 1 diabetes among US youth from other racial and ethnic groups. The SEARCH study estimated that in 2009, 13,000 non-Hispanic white children and over 5,000 children from other race and ethnic groups combined were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.”
Lawrence said the incidence rate reported is concerning “because all children diagnosed with type 1 diabetes will required specialized health care in childhood and as adults to reduce their risk for diabetes-related complications such as problems with their eyes, kidneys and nervous system.”
“Health care systems and health care providers will need to work with these children and their families to address their unique and often complicated health care needs,” she said. — by Amber Cox
Disclosure: See the complete study for a full list of disclosures.
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