Emergence of Type II Diabetes Among Children Ages 10 to 19
in the United States Over the Last 15 Years
Type 2
diabetes was primarily known as adult-onset diabetes diagnosed to overweight
patients in their late 40s and older.
However, over the last two decades or so, pediatricians have seen an
alarming increase of this disease being diagnosed in children. Diabetes is one of the most common chronic
diseases in children and adolescents.
Type 2
diabetes has been described as a new epidemic affecting the American pediatric
population. In 1992, it was rare to see
a case of type two diabetes in children.
Pediatric centers reported 2-4% of patients were diagnosed with type two
diabetes. In a two-year time span, this
percentage jumped to 16%. In the past
decade, this number has increased to an astonishing 33% and is continuing to
increase at a rapid rate. We see from
this data how much this epidemic is growing.
In a matter of two decades this disease went from extremely rare or
nonexistent to becoming a national epidemic.
If this disease isn’t controlled, prevented, and treated, a third of all
children born in the year 2000 will be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.
In response
to this growing epidemic, the CDC partnered with the National Institutes of Health
in 2000 to fund the SEARCH for diabetes in youth. In 2001, SEARCH observed 3.5 million children
under 20 years of age under active surveillance to estimate how many children
had diabetes. They observed that 154,000
kids had diabetes and type 2 diabetes was a rare occurrence. SEARCH continued their surveillance from 2002
to 2003 but of 5.5 million children less than 20 years of age. They estimated that the overall incidence of
diabetes is estimated to be 24.3 per 100,000 per year. Fifteen thousand youths are diagnosed with
type 1 diabetes in a year. Three
thousand, seven hundred are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes a year. The rate of new cases for individual’s under
the age of 20 is 5.3 per 100,000 per year for type 2 diabetes.
The number
of children aged 10-19 in the United States with type 2 diabetes would be a
direct indicator. There are currently
154,000 children in the United States diagnosed with this disease. The percentage of children with diabetes that
have type 2 diabetes, 30-40%, is also significant. Blood pressure and blood sugar levels of
children can also be an indicator of type 2 diabetes. Also the percentage of children who have the
potential to become diagnosed with type two diabetes would be a direct
indicator.
Indirect
indicators for type 2 diabetes would be rising obesity rates in children. Eighty percent of all children who develop
type 2 diabetes are either overweight or obese.
This statistic would be reliable because it is calculating a child’s BMI
and not subject to any bias. Another indirect
indicator would be inactivity in children.
When children aren’t active, they tend to gain more weight, which can
also be a cause of diabetes. Children
spend more time inside watching TV and playing on electronic devices rather
than going outside and getting active.
You could look into the statistics of how many children aged 10-19 are
active regularly. Genetics could also be
a indirect indicator. The statistics of
kids who have parents that are overweight or have diabetes is significant.
For the direct
indicators such a the number and percentage of kids with diabetes can be very
accurate and inexpensive. The data for
this can be collected through surveillance by reports from pediatricians. However, it might be subject to a little bias
because not all children go to the doctors office. For children inactivity, the results will not
be completely reliable. These results
are based solely off of the information that children report. There is no telling whether or not these
children were truthful in the survey.
Also genetics can be reliable but also have the potential of being
unreliable. If the researchers access
the parents’ medical records they would be reliable data. However, this can be considered an invasion
of privacy. Avoiding the invasion of
privacy, researchers would have to rely on the parents reporting their
data. Which these results can also be
skewed based off the honesty of the parents and the parents who are willing to
fill out the survey.
Work Cited:
Hi Zoey,
ReplyDeleteNice work. A couple comments on your blog:
1. I'm having trouble understanding what you mean when you say that now 33% of kids in pediatric centers are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes? You mention the 2-4%, then 16%, then 33%. I think maybe what you meant to say is that of the kids who are diagnosed with diabetes, there's an increasing number of those who have type 2 diabetes instead of type 1 diabetes?? And from the readings you listed, I think the numbers (16%, 33%, etc) were pertaining to race/ethnicity and percentage of type 2 diabetes over total diabetes diagnoses (as in, for Black children, 33% who have diabetes, are diagnosed w/ type 2 diabetes...) What do you think based on your reading? Remember that type 2 diabetes is still really rare in children...although you're sure right that it's increasing quickly.
2. Thanks for listing your sources in "works cited". But, I can't tell which statement in your blog pertains to which website. So, you need to start indicating this (and for sure you'll need to do this in your paper). There's the MLA and APA formats for citing work. Here's a helpful website: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/949/01/
Thanks for following the directions for the blog so well. I think your paper is coming along really well.
Erin
Zoey,
ReplyDeleteOverall, I think you did a nice job explaining the magnitude of your problem and in describing some indicators. Going off of what Erin said, I think it would be helpful to be a little more precise when listing your statistics, just so that no confusion results. When I first read the statement Erin is referring to, I thought you were trying to say that in 1992, only 2-4% of children were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, then in 1994 it jumped to 16%, and then 10 years later, in 2004, it had reached 33%. Based on how I read it, it made it seem that pediatric centers are reporting that a third of their patients have type II diabetes, which makes the problem seem far larger than it really is. So, I think you should just make sure that the context and full description behind these statistics is given so that it is clear what these percentages really mean. Other than that, I thought you were very thorough and did a good description of your problem!
Alyssa