Type 1 Diabetes Rate Jumps In Non-Hispanic Children

Recent findings published in the journal Diabetes reveal that the number of cases of type 1 diabetes diagnosed in non-Hispanic white children and adolescents has dramatically increased in the last several years.

"Type 1 diabetes in the predominant form of diabetes diagnosed in childhood. The incidence has been rising in many other countries, particularly Europe, but data from large populations in the U.S. were limited," said lead study author Jean M. Lawrence, ScD, MPH, MSSA, of the Kaiser Permanent Southern California Department of Research & Evaluation, in a news release. "This project provides a much larger and more geographically diverse sample than pervious studies in the U.S."

For the study, researchers examined the rate of type 1 diabetes between 2002 and 2009. Data showed that over two million children and adolescents taken from the SEARCH for Diabetes Youth registry.

Sample findings showed that roughly 5,842 of them were non-Hispanic white children aged 19 and younger who were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.

Findings showed that the incidence of the illness for this particularly racial group increased from 24.4 cases per 100,000 youth to 27.4 cases per 100,000 youth druing the study's time period.

Researchers also discovered increases in the rate of type 1 diabetes in children belonging to the age groups fo 10 to 14 and 15 to 19. Those aged four and younger were also the ones that did not experience an increase in cases.

"Our findings indicate that the rates of type 1 diabetes in youth are increasing. We have been seeing more children being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes over the 8 years of the study and these children will require specialized health care as they enter young adulthood," Lawrence concluded. "These trends will continue to be monitored in the U.S. by the SEARCH study to help identify trends in type 1 diabetes in non-Hispanic white youth and youth from other racial and ethnic groups, and to identify potential causes of these increases."