news release
Wednesday, October 9, 2024
Efforts to identify risk factors for type 2 diabetes in young people to improve prevention and treatment.
The National Institutes of Health has launched a national consortium to address the dramatic increase in the number of young people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes over the past 20 years. This trend is expected to continue. This initiative aims to advance our understanding of the biological, social and environmental drivers of type 2 diabetes in young people, with the aim of determining which children are most at risk of developing the disease; and to determine how to better prevent, screen and manage diabetes. 2 Diabetes in young people.
“Children who are overweight or obese are at risk, but we don't know how best to identify which children will progress to type 2 diabetes,” said study leader Rose Gubitosi Krug, MD. Ta. Chief of Pediatric Endocrinology at Case Western Reserve University/Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in Cleveland. “This research will move us closer to the goal of preventing type 2 diabetes in future generations of young people.”
This observational study, funded by NIH's National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), shows that young-onset type 2 diabetes is more difficult to treat and more aggressive than adult-onset diabetes. Based on previous research funded by NIDDK. Type 2 diabetes. In young people with type 2 diabetes, it is difficult to achieve good blood sugar control, and the ability of the pancreas to secrete insulin declines more rapidly. Many young people with type 2 diabetes also respond poorly to metformin, the drug most commonly used as first-line treatment for diabetes in adults. Additionally, type 2 diabetes that develops in young people is associated with earlier onset of diabetes-related complications, such as eye, kidney, and nerve damage.
“All of these factors create the image that the disease is much more aggressive in young people than in adults, but we don't know what causes these differences,” said the director of NIDDK. said Barbara Linder, MD, program director. the study. “As a result, young people are developing severe complications of the disease during what should be the most productive period of their lives.”
This study aims to distinguish type 2 diabetes in young people from the disease in adults and identify its unique factors, which will help clinicians better understand which children develop the disease. and will help guide more effective and targeted prevention and intervention strategies. Research sites across the country will recruit 3,600 participants between the ages of 9 and 14 who are considered at risk of developing type 2 diabetes. They must be going through puberty, be overweight or obese, and have normal to above-normal hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) levels, but not high enough to be diagnosed with diabetes. Participants include youth with type 2 diabetes in the United States, including people of various races and ethnicities, socioeconomically disadvantaged populations, and underserved rural populations.
The research team is also seeking extensive input from youth, young adults, and parents with lived experience of type 2 diabetes on both the design and implementation of the study. This includes how best to recruit and retain participants, how often to meet with participants during the study, and what to do. Surveys should be used to collect data and more.
In addition to considering biological factors, the research team collected comprehensive data from participants and their families to identify social and social factors that may be negatively impacting health disparities and poor outcomes for young people with type 2 diabetes. and will understand environmental factors. Research suggests that these social determinants of health—the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, and age—have a powerful influence on shaping health outcomes. . For example, people who do not have access to healthy food and safe places to engage in physical activity are more likely to develop obesity associated with type 2 diabetes.
“Currently, most children considered to be ‘at risk’ of developing type 2 diabetes never actually develop it, so what factors define and target who is at risk? We need to better understand whether they would benefit from targeted prevention strategies,” Dr. Linder said. “These efforts are essential to alleviate the tremendous burden on the U.S. health care system that results from the growing number of young people living with this disease and its debilitating complications, as well as young people and their families. ”
For more information about this study, known as 'Discovering Risk Factors for Type 2 Diabetes in Youth', please visit: discovery.bsc.gwu.edu.
Funding: DISCOVERY is supported by NIH grants DK134971, DK134984, DK134975, DK134996, DK134958, DK134967, DK135002, DK134982, DK135007, DK134988, DK134978, , DK13501 2, DK135015, DK134976, and DK134966.
NIDDK, part of the NIH, conducts and supports research in diabetes and other endocrine and metabolic diseases. Digestive diseases, nutrition, obesity. Diseases of the kidneys, urology, and hematology. These diseases span the entire spectrum of medicine, affect people of all ages and ethnic groups, and encompass some of the most common and seriously disabling conditions affecting Americans. For more information about NIDDK and its programs, see: https://www.niddk.nih.gov.
About the National Institutes of Health (NIH):The nation's medical research agency, NIH, has 27 institutes and centers and is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency that conducts and supports basic, clinical, and translational medical research, investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, please visit www.nih.gov.
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