Prediabetes more than doubled among US youths from 1999 through 2018

The prevalence of prediabetes more than doubled among U.S. youths from 1999 through 2018, according to findings published this week in JAMA Pediatrics.

In a letter, researchers noted that “trends in the prevalence of prediabetes among youths and associated disparities by population subgroups over the past 2 decades have not been reported to our knowledge, and such information is important for future diabetes prevention.”

The researchers reviewed data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 1999-2000 through 2017-2018 on youths aged 12 to 19 years who completed the survey’s interview and examination.

They included 6,598 participants in the analysis — around 51% of them male — with a mean age of 15.5 years. They defined prediabetes as having no recorded diagnosis of diabetes but a hemoglobin A_1C level of 5.7% to 6.4% or a fasting plasma glucose level of 100 mg/dL to 125 mg/dL.

Overall, the data showed that prevalence of prediabetes among U.S. youths increased significantly, from a rate of 11.6% (95% CI, 9.49%-14.1%) in 1999-2002 to 28.2% (95% CI, 23.3%-33.6%) in 2015-2018.

During the same period, the prevalence of prediabetes increased from 9.41% (95% CI, 7.5%-11.8%) to 24.3% (95% CI, 18.9%-30.7%) among youths with underweight or normal weight, from 15.3% (95% CI, 9.45%- 23.8%) to 27.5% (95% CI, 19.7%-36.9%) among youths with overweight, and from 18.2% (95% CI, 12.8%- 25.2%) to 40.4% (95% CI, 30.2%-51.5%) among youths with obesity.