Diabetes rates increase dramatically among children

The incidence of Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes has increased drastically among children and adolescents, The New York Times reported.

After analyzing incidence data collected from 2001 to 2009, researchers found a 21 percent increase in Type 1 diabetes among children up to age 19 and a 30 percent increase in Type 2 diabetes among children ages 10 to 19.

“In my career, Type 1 diabetes was a rare disease in children, and Type 2 disease didn’t exist. And I’m not that old,” Dr. Robin S. Goland, co-director of the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center at Columbia University Medical Center in New York, told the New York Times. Goland was not involved in the research.

The nationally representative study included data from more than three million children under the age of 20 in five states — California, Colorado, Ohio, South Carolina and Washington — as well as from selected Native American reservations.