Posted on 06/23/2023 4:02:08 PM PDT by nickcarraway
An increase in pediatric type 2 diabetes cases that began during school closures amid the COVID-19 pandemic has not returned to baseline, according to a retrospective study.
Compared with the year before COVID emerged, the number of new pediatric type 2 diabetes cases ballooned during the first year of the pandemic (March 2020 through February 2021; P=0.005), and then jumped again during the second year (March 2021 through February 2022; P=0.0006), reported Esther Bell-Sambataro, MD, of Nationwide Children's Hospital and the Ohio State University in Columbus, during ENDO 2023opens in a new tab or window, the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society.
"Even though we may have returned to pre-pandemic times in several aspects, the increased risk of our youth developing type 2 diabetes that started during the pandemic appears to have persisted in the second year of the pandemic," she said.
This was the opposite finding of what the researchers hypothesized when they initiated this chart review at their institution.
The researchers believed they would see an increase in the first year of the COVID pandemic, due to school shutdowns causing kids to be less active, snacking more often, and eating more unhealthy foods.
"During the pandemic, we did see quite a bit of really decreased physical activity," Bell-Sambataro told MedPage Today. "Kids were out of school. Oftentimes, breakfast and lunch -- meals that they have at school which now are being provided at home -- might not have been as nutritious or as well-balanced."
"And so, we expected that once they returned back to school, things would normalize, which is not what we found," she added.
Similar results were seen for type 1 diabetes, Bell-Sambataro said, with body mass index (BMI) among all kids with new-onset type 1 diabetes diagnoses increasing significantly during the pandemic.
The mean BMI Z-score among all youths with new-onset diabetes increased from 0.58 in the year before the pandemic to 0.86 in the first year of the pandemic and to 1.29 in the second year.
HbA1C levels also increased significantly in the first year of the pandemic among kids with type 2 diabetes, with mean levels of 7.8% at diagnosis in the year before the pandemic rising to 10.1% and 9.7% in the first 2 years of the pandemic.
"We did find that there is something else that is causing this increase in type 2 diabetes, and we just need further studies to figure out what other things are contributing, including COVID-19," Bell-Sambataro noted. "At this time, we don't know that there is a true contribution to pathophysiology, but that is something that we'll need to continue to study."
Commenting on the study, Joseph Henske, MD, of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, told MedPage Today that "this study raises a number of questions, including whether COVID-19 itself has an effect on development of type 2 diabetes. Also, COVID-19 is not over, it is still here, and that may be having an effect on these children and their risk of diabetes."
About half of the children who were diagnosed with both type 1 and 2 diabetes were girls in all time frames studied. The proportion of Black kids diagnosed also increased from 15% during the year before the pandemic to 27% during the second year of the pandemic. Throughout the study, the children were about 12 years old at diagnosis.
"We must continue to monitor our at-risk youth and have a low threshold to screen for type 2 diabetes in those with genetic risk factors, obesity, and less active lifestyles," Bell-Sambataro said. "The rapid change in the landscape of pediatric diabetes with a growing proportion of type 2 diabetes is an alarming trend that requires additional longitudinal and multicenter studies."
Ed Susman is a freelance medical writer based in Fort Pierce, Florida, USA.
They keep changing “ranges” on a lot of these bodily functions...I l compare my old records...and the ranges are always a cut...
No wonder with the ‘food’ we have today. Miss my garden, but who knows what’s in the seeds, the dirt, etc. that we used to grow foods.
Tony the Tiger says: KEEP IT UP!!!
Type 2 diabetes and now the “new” type 1 (not really type 1, just type 2 to the extreme they need insulin) in children is just another term for child abuse.
BMI has more than doubled and the researchers can’t find a reason for the increase in type 2 diabetes? Buy a vowel, researchers!!!!!
“Type 2 diabetes and now the “new” type 1 (not really type 1, just type 2 to the extreme they need insulin) in children is just another term for child abuse.”
I know a number of people who STILL feed their kids carbs and send them to public schools.
Their children need to be moved to a safe household.
They are blaming the onset of type II on obesity and lack of exercise. They are missing the point here. Type II is caused by problems with a chemical in the body (hormone) called insulin. It’s often linked to being overweight from insulin resistance or having a family history of type 2 diabetes.
An example of a misunderstanding as to the origins of diabetes can be identified with me. I was determined type II in 1986 while in the military. I was 6 feet one inch, weighed less than 180 pounds, and was running 5 miles daily besides competing at open level racquetball and handball also teaching them. I was in outstanding physical condition and had a BMI of 23 as a lot of my mass was lean muscule and a normal BMI for those measurements is 25.75.
So the insertion of weight and lack of exercise is not always the answer to the question of what causes diabetes. Genes have a far greater impact than that. Obesity is a sign of the failure of the insulin to do its job. Not the cause of the illness.
wy69
I have a hunch that the typical school lunch is high in carbohydrates and still only serves low fat dairy options.
So why the sudden, historic change?
“So why the sudden, historic change?”
If you’re talking about the medical field trying to blame something in place of knowing the whole story, they have been doing this with diabetes for many generations like many illnesses.
Science knew about type I for many years but didn’t differentiate the two types until the 20th century nor knew how to treat either one and there were a lot of guesses about the illness. The obvious was trying to determine the cause based upon the symptoms. So that’s how that got started and it hasn’t died to this day only they have gone from blaming the symptoms to relieving the illness using them as a cure.
There are some studies like the one in the UK where they openly admit that there is no cure for diabetes, just possible remission.
“Is there a cure for type 2 diabetes? There’s no cure yet, but our scientists are working on a ground-breaking weight management study, to help people put their type 2 diabetes into remission. Remission is when blood glucose (or blood sugar) levels are in a normal range again.”
Another good article is from the Joslin Diabetes Center:
“We talk of remission and not a cure because it isn’t permanent. The beta cells have been damaged and the underlying genetic factors contributing to the person’s susceptibility to diabetes remain intact. Over time the disease process reasserts itself and continued destruction of the beta cells ensues.”
If you tack that on to the terminology used by the medical field you can get confused easily as they can sometimes make themselves sound different. Here’s an entry from WEBMD:
“Although there’s no cure for type 2 diabetes, studies show it’s possible for some people to reverse it.”
https://www.webmd.com/diabetes/can-you-reverse-type-2-diabetes
But that is only for the symptoms, not the illness as they can’t cure it. So the term reverse is a bit confusing. They are still practicing medicine.
wy69
Actually, I’m talking about the sudden massive increase in once rare obesity and diabetes.
Take a look at random photos of school kids from the 80s going back 100 years. Now compare that to the stockyards that are our current schools.
“...compare that to the stockyards that are our current schools.”
According to the MAYO, lifestyle issues — too little activity and too many calories from food and drinks — are the main contributors to childhood obesity. Children who don’t exercise much are more likely to gain weight because they don’t burn as many calories. Too much time spent in sedentary activities, such as watching television or playing video games, also contributes to the problem. Kids play too much with sports videos to actually have the time to play them for real. TV shows also often feature ads for unhealthy foods all geared for the eight to 18 year old age group. Additionally, there is at least one seven eleven on the kids walk to and from school everyday so they load up inventory of bad foods and go to them way to often as they are not supervised as they would be at home, (hopefully).
You speak of the 80’s. That group is the parents of today and when they failed in keeping fit they passed the problem on to their kids by not encouraging them to participate in physical activity and feeding them the same foods that got them into the mix.
However, the overweight scenario is highly over rated. According to John Hopkins in a study they did, 34 percent of adults with diabetes were overweight, while 28 percent had obesity—virtually the same as the proportions—36 percent and 28 percent—seen in people without diabetes. This is why I believe it has a lot more to do with genes and medication rather than weight.
In my case, my biggest enemy was prednisone, a steroid for my lungs internal infections, and heart condition. Depending on how bad the situation was would direct the doctor to prescribe 30, 40, or 50 milligram pills sometimes twice daily for weeks at a time. My sugar numbers would skyrocket. And while I was sedimentary, and perpetually hungry due to the meds, I would gain weight which was a reaction to the high sugar. Yo yo effect. And with insulin resistance, my body was going to retain a percentage of anything I ate...nature of the problem...and toss it onto my midriff area.
Thank you for asking about the illness. I hope you or family/friends don’t have it. Outside of the fact it shortens your life time, it is a pain in the keyster. Both my father and older brother had it and they died due to complications. Brother at 39. Dad, mid sixties.
wy69
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