Title: Obesity in Children Quadruples Their Risk of Type 2 Diabetes
Headings: Obesity in Children Quadruples Their Risk of Type 2 Diabetes
Obesity in Children Quadruples Their Risk of Type 2 Diabetes
Type 2 Diabetes Rising in Parallel With Obesity

Content: Overall, 12.3% of the individuals were overweight, while 16.7% were classified as obese. There were 654 incident cases of type 2 diabetes and 1318 cases of type 1 diabetes during the study period. The incidence of type 2 diabetes increased from 6.4 per 100,000 persons in 1994–1998 to 33.2 per 100,000 persons in 2009–2013, while that for type 1 diabetes between the same two time periods increased from 38.2 to 562.1 per 100,000 persons. The incidence of type 2 diabetes increased significantly among children who were overweight, from 0 per 100,000 persons in 1994–1998 to 22.8 per 100,000 persons in 2009–2013 ( P = .01), and among those who were obese, from 5.7 to 103.3 per 100,000 persons ( P < .01). Obese individuals, who made up 47.1% of type 2 diabetes cases, had a significantly increased risk of incident type 2 diabetes compared with normal-BMI individuals, at an odds ratio of 3.7 and an incidence rate ratio of 4.33. Examining BMI as a continuous variable, the team also found that each one-standard-deviation increase in BMI Z-score was associated with an odds ratio of incident type 2 diabetes of 1.6. There were no significant associations between obesity or BMI and the risk of developing type 1 diabetes. The team says: " Taken together, we update observational evidence that the rate of type 2 diabetes incidence, although less common than type 1, is rising among the UK children and young adults in parallel with increasing childhood obesity over the past decades." Dr Abbasi noted that the study raises some questions as to how to prioritize investment in type 2 diabetes prevention and management in children and young adults, such as: "