Childhood diabetes rates set to soar

Friday May 29, 2009 (foodconsumer.org) -- A “worrying” study shows that childhood diabetes cases are rising dramatically, with some scientists predicting a 70 percent increase by the year 2020.

The number of children under the age of five diagnosed with type 1 diabetes increased 5.4 percent per year in a European study, according to BBC News. That number is set to double between 2005 and 2020, say health experts.

While those predictions are based on European findings, doctors in the United States say studies are already showing increases of type 1 diabetes among children.

A CDC study called SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth is currently following the progress of 9,000 children with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Dr. Dana Dabelea, co-investigator of the study, told WebMD that in 2007 rates of type 1 diabetes were higher than predicted. The increase, she said, was most pronounced in non-Hispanic white children.

“It is imperative that efforts directed at surveillance of diabetes in young children continue to expand,” she told WebMD, “not only to understand its complex etiology, but also because of the increasing public health importance.”

Researchers in the European study, from Ireland and Hungary, based their findings on 29,311 patients with type 1 diabetes. Statistics were recorded in European countries between 1989 and 2003. Children between the ages of five and nine showed an annual increase of 4.3 percent while those aged 10 to 14 saw a rise of 2.9 percent.

Dr. Christopher Patterson, of Ireland’s Queen’s University, said because the increase in cases is occurring so quickly, it is likely that environmental factors are driving the trend. Possible triggers could be children’s diet, viral infection and even C-section delivery.

Patterson told WebMD that improvements in detection and treatment are necessary.
“We are likely to see more children with severe diabetes complications presenting at earlier ages if we fail to recognize and adequately treat disease in very young patients,” Patterson said. Researchers estimate that if present trends continue, rates among children under the age of five will double by 2020.

(By Sheilah Downey, and edited by Heather Kelley)