NIH Launches Observational Study to Address Rise in Type 2 Diabetes in Youth

NIH is launching a nationwide consortium “to address the dramatic rise in youth diagnosed with type 2 diabetes over the past two decades, a trend that is expected to continue.”

The effort is specifically aiming to “advance understanding of the biologic, social, and environmental drivers of youth-onset type 2 diabetes, with the goals of determining which children are at highest risk for developing the disease and how to better prevent, screen for, and manage type 2 diabetes in young people.”

The study “builds on previous National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases-funded research indicating that youth-onset type 2 diabetes is more challenging to treat and progresses more aggressively compared to adult-onset type 2 diabetes. In youth with type 2 diabetes, good blood glucose control is harder to achieve, and the ability of the pancreas to secrete insulin declines much more rapidly. Many young people with type 2 diabetes also don’t respond well to metformin, the drug most commonly used as the first-line treatment for diabetes in adults. In addition, youth-onset type 2 diabetes is associated with earlier development of diabetes-related complications, such as damage to the eyes, kidneys, and nerves.”

Study sites will recruit 3,600 participants from the ages of 9 to 14 “who are considered at risk for developing type 2 diabetes.” The study team will look at both biological factors and “social and environmental factors [that] may be adversely contributing to health disparities and poor outcomes among youth with type 2 diabetes.”