Trends in Age of Pediatric Diabetes Diagnoses, with Katherine Sauder, PhD

New research presented at the American Diabetes Association 82nd Scientific Sessions is providing clinicians and researchers with an overview of trends related to age at time of diabetes diagnosis among youth from the US.

Presented by Katherine Sauder, PhD, of the University of Colorado, results of the study, which leveraged data from the SEARCH study, suggest that the rate of type 2 diabetes diagnoses has increased but the mean age at time of diagnosis has remained the same since 2002 and point to a disparity in time at diagnosis based on race/ethnicity.

With funding from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and support from the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, the current study was launched with the intent of examining how the incidence of youth-onset type 2 diabetes by age at diagnosis has changed since 2002 and to compared temporal trends in annual incidence from 2002-2009 to 2010-2018, with an interest in exploring incidence in multiple subgroups defined by time period, sex, and race/ethnicity.

For the purpose of analysis, annual incidence was ululated as the total number of new cases divided by the population aged less than 20 years in the catchment area. Investigators used a generalized autoregression moving average model to estimate 2-year trends in incidence.

Upon analysis, investigators found the incidence rate of type 2 diabetes increased from 2002-2009 to 2010-2018 (P <.001), with an incident rate of more than 20 per 100,000 youths in the 2010-2018 period. Despite this increase, the peak age at diagnosis remained at 16 years. Further analysis suggested the peak age at diagnosis was similar between females (16 [95% CI, 15-19]) and males (16 [95% CI, 16-18]) across all study years.

However, results indicated the peak age at diagnosis was younger for non-Hispanic Black youth, which had a peak age at diagnosis of 13 years. This was not observed for other racial/ethnic groups with a peak age at onset of 16 years among those identifying as American Indian, Asian and Pacific Islander, Hispanic, and non-Hispanic White youth.

For more on the results of this study and what it might tell us about current efforts in the fight against youth diabetes, Endocrinology Network caught up with Sauder at ADA 2022 and that conversation can be found below.

This study, “Trends in Incidence and Age at Diagnosis of Youth-Onset Type 2 Diabetes, 2002–2018–The SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth Study,” was presented at ADA 2022.