USA Today Examines Increase Of Diabetes Cases Among Children

Main Category: Diabetes
Also Included In: Pediatrics / Children's Health
Article Date: 14 Nov 2007 - 9:00 PST

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USA Today in the second day of a four-day series titled "The Fight Against Diabetes" examined how the "nationwide trend toward more high-fat food and less high-activity play" that has "run smack into a genetic predisposition for diabetes" has prompted an increase in cases of type 2 diabetes in children. According to USA Today, the trend "threatens to offset the benefits of improved diabetes treatment that have led to reductions in many of the disease's deadly or disabling complications."

Treatment of type 2 diabetes in children is "uncharted ground," USA Today reports. FDA has approved insulin and metformin as treatments for type 2 diabetes in children. However, insulin as a first-line treatment for type 2 diabetes can cause weight gain in overweight children, and metformin alone often is inadequate, according to Jane Lynch of the Texas Diabetes Institute.

In addition, although diet and exercise can help manage type 2 diabetes in children, health insurers often do not cover the cost of nutritionists or diabetes education, and "it takes intensive education and reinforcement" to prompt behavioral changes, Lynch said (Manning, USA Today, 11/13).

In conjunction with the USA Today series, ABC's "World News" on Monday reported on an ongoing study examining the use of oral insulin in young children who are predisposed to developing type 1 diabetes. The segment includes comments from William Russell, director of pediatric endocrinology at Vanderbilt University, and family members of a child enrolled in the study (Hayes, "World News," ABC, 11/12). Video of the segment is available online. Expanded ABC News coverage also is available online.

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