The prevalence of type 1 and type 2 diabetes has significantly increased in children since the year 2001.
The researchers looked at data from over three million children across different regions of the United States, a JAMA Network Journals news release reported.
"Understanding changes in prevalence according to population subgroups is important to inform clinicians about care that will be needed for the pediatric population living with diabetes and may provide direction for other studies designed to determine the causes of the observed changes," the authors wrote, the news release reported.
The study looked at the prevalence of type 1 diabetes in children between the ages of zero and 19 and type 2 diabetes in those between the ages of 10 and 19.
The study subjects were residents of "California, Colorado, Ohio, South Carolina, and Washington state," as well as numerous Native American reservations in Arizona and New Mexico, the news release reported.
In 2011 the prevalence of type 1 diabetes among the population of 3.3 million youths was 1.48 for every 1,000 people. This number increased to 1.93 for every 1,000 individuals in a population of 3.4 million youth in 2009. This translates to an increase of about 21 percent over an eight-year period.
The most dramatic numbers were found in youths between the aged of 15 and 19.
"Historically, type l diabetes has been considered a disease that affects primarily white youth; however, our findings highlight the increasing burden of type l diabetes experienced by youth of minority racial/ethnic groups as well," the authors wrote, the news release reported.
The prevalence of diabetes 2 in youth between the ages of 16 and 19 increased by 30.5 percent between 2001 and 2009.
"The increases in prevalence reported herein are important because such youth with diabetes will enter adulthood with several years of disease duration, difficulty in treatment, an increased risk of early complications, and increased frequency of diabetes during reproductive years, which may further increase diabetes in the next generation," the researchers wrote, the news release reported. "Further studies are required to determine the causes of these increases."
