"Pre-diabetes," diabetes rising among U.S. teens

The percentage of U.S. teenagers with "pre-diabetes" or full-blown type 2 diabetes has more than doubled in recent years - though obesity and other heart risk factors have held steady, government researchers reported Monday.

The good news, the researchers say, is that teen obesity rates leveled off between 1999 and 2008 - hovering between 18 percent and 20 percent over the years.

Rates of high blood pressure and high LDL cholesterol (the "bad" kind) also remained steady.

But the picture was different with so-called pre-diabetes and with type 2 diabetes. Those conditions were seen in nine percent of teens in 1999-2000, but that figure rose to 23 percent in 2007-2008, the researchers report in the journal Pediatrics.

"That was unexpected, especially since obesity has been leveling off," said lead researcher Ashleigh May, of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

"The question of why that is will require more research," May told Reuters Health.

Pre-diabetes refers to higher-than-normal blood sugar levels. It's concerning, May said, because people with pre-diabetes have a heightened risk of developing type 2 diabetes, which is a major risk factor for heart disease, stroke and kidney disease.

Total prevalence of diabetes Total: 25.8 million children and adults in the United States—8.3% of the population—have diabetes.

Diagnosed: 18.8 million people

Undiagnosed: 7.0 million people

Prediabetes: 79 million people*

New Cases: 1.9 million new cases of diabetes are diagnosed in people aged 20 years and older in 2010.

* In contrast to the 2007 National Diabetes Fact Sheet, which used fasting glucose data to estimate undiagnosed diabetes and prediabetes, the 2011 National Diabetes Fact Sheet uses both fasting glucose and A1C levels to derive estimates for undiagnosed diabetes and prediabetes. These tests were chosen because they are most frequently used in clinical practice.

Under 20 years of age

- 215,000, or 0.26% of all people in this age group have diabetes
- About 1 in every 400 children and adolescents has diabetes

Age 20 years or older

- 25.6 million, or 11.3% of all people in this age group have diabetes

Age 65 years or older

- 10.9 million, or 26.9% of all people in this age group have diabetes

###
Data from the 2011 National Diabetes Fact Sheet (released Jan. 26, 2011)