New research to be presented next month at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes meeting in Italy found that youth type 2 diabetes cases in Colorado increased nearly 10-fold between 2002 and 2023.
Researchers said the Colorado findings may reflect broader trends across the United States during the past two decades.
Researchers say type 2 diabetes, once considered primarily an adult disease, is becoming increasingly common among children and teenagers. The study analyzed Colorado diabetes data for people younger than 20 using diagnosis records, lab results and medication data collected since 2002.
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Researchers found that 8,094 children and teens in Colorado were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes from 2002 to 2023. During the same period, 1,560 youths ages 10 to 19 were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.
Type 1 diabetes rates rose slightly from 25.07 to 27.39 cases per 100,000 youths, while type 2 diabetes rates jumped from 2.37 to 22.30 cases per 100,000 youths ages 10 to 19.
“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,” said Dr. Tessa Crume of the Colorado School of Public Health.
“In Colorado, we have now watched it rise nearly tenfold in young people in just two decades, and the increase is accelerating rather than slowing,” Crume said.
Crume added that what has been occurring in Colorado is not an anomaly. Researchers also said youth-onset type 2 diabetes is often more aggressive than adult-onset disease, with symptoms progressing more quickly.
“The insulin-producing cells of the pancreas decline faster, blood sugar is harder to control, and complications affecting the kidneys, eyes, nerves and heart can appear within just a few years rather than decades,” Crume said.
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“A child diagnosed at 14 faces the prospect of these complications in early adulthood, and youth-onset type 2 diabetes is associated with a shortened life expectancy.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 40 million Americans — about 12% of the population — have diabetes. The CDC also estimates that about 11 million people with diabetes have not yet been diagnosed.
The CDC estimates that type 2 diabetes cases among children younger than 18 could increase 700% between 2024 and 2060.
