Type 2 diabetes in children and its association with obesity

Emerging as a global public health problem, type 2 diabetes (T2D) occurs when insulin secretion fails to meet the increased demand created by insulin resistance, thus leading to a state of relative insulin deficiency¹. It is rare before puberty, but there has recently been a rise in pre-pubescent diagnoses. Diagnosis happens most often during the second decade, with a median age of 13.5 years in girls and boys following a year later. Physiologically, this coincides with a peak in insulin resistance. Young adults diagnosed with T2D tend to come from families where T2D is already prevalent¹.

The incidence of T2D in children and young adults has increased worldwide, in direct correlation with the increase in rates of obesity in the same populations². In the United Kingdom around 31,500 children have diabetes, the majority with Type 1. T2D typically develops in adults over 40, but childhood diabetes (once a rare diagnosis) is now on the rise.T2D was first reported in white adolescents in 2002 and since this time there has been a year-on-year increase. The most recent National Paediatric Diabetes Audit (NPDA) highlights a total of 533 children with T2D presenting to paediatric diabetes units in the United Kingdom.³