Type 2 diabetes rises sharply in teenagers
Type 2 diabetes was once seen as an adult disease. Now, it is increasingly diagnosed in teenagers. Between 2002 and 2023, new cases in Colorado rose nearly tenfold, researchers at the Colorado School of Public Health found.
Researchers examined over two decades of data from the Colorado Diabetes Registry, which tracks new diabetes cases among Colorado residents under 20, to understand the changing trends in diabetes among young people.
Diabetes Trends in Young People
Between 2002 and 2023, over 8,000 children and teenagers under 20 were newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, while 1,560 young people ages 10 to 19 developed type 2 diabetes, with the latter showing a striking increase.
Type 1 diabetes rates increased modestly, from 25.07 cases per 100,000 young people in 2002 to 27.39 per 100,000 in 2022, whereas type 2 diabetes climbed from 2.37 cases per 100,000 adolescents to 22.30 per 100,000, a nearly tenfold increase.
Lead author Tessa Crume, an associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Colorado School of Public Health, noted that a generation ago, type 2 diabetes in a teenager was so rare that many pediatric clinicians could go through much of their career without seeing a case; it was a disease of middle age.
Youth-Onset Type 2 Diabetes
Youth-onset type 2 diabetes often progresses more aggressively than the disease diagnosed in middle age, with blood sugar potentially being harder to control and serious complications involving the kidneys, eyes, nerves, and heart developing much earlier.
A child diagnosed with type 2 diabetes at age 14 faces the prospect of these complications in early adulthood, and youth-onset type 2 diabetes is also associated with a shortened life expectancy.
The growing prevalence of obesity among children and teens has complicated the diagnosis, as a teenager with a high body mass index and raised blood sugar might have either type 1 or type 2 diabetes, requiring specialized testing for diabetes-related autoantibodies and insulin resistance.
Crume emphasized that the services needed are not only about capacity to treat a growing number of young people; they are about ensuring that every child with new-onset diabetes receives proper autoantibody and metabolic testing rather than being classified on impression.
Prevention and Community Support
The Colorado data show the need for collaboration. Communities, health systems, and families must work together to prevent diabetes. This includes access to fresh produce, safe exercise spaces, healthy school meals, and supportive environments for better choices.
The study, Trends in type 1 and type 2 diabetes incidence in youth over a 21-year period in Colorado, U.S.A., was presented at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes. It serves as a warning: preventing diabetes cannot depend only on children’s efforts.
