Diabetes and pre-diabetes rates are soaring among the nation's teens, jumping from 9 percent of the adolescent population in 2000 to 23 percent in 2008.
The study published today in Pediatrics is based on data from about 3,400 adolescents ages 12 to 19, who were tracked between 1999 and 2008 as part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The researchers did not differentiate between teens with diabetes and prediabetes, but most are likely to be prediabetic, the study authors said. That means blood glucose levels are higher than normal, but not yet high enough to warrant a diabetes diagnosis.
Researchers suggest wide-scale diabetes screenings for those ages 10 and older who are overweight or obese, or who have other risk actors, such as diabetic family members.
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