New research indicates that kids with Type 2 diabetes are at a higher risk of developing kidney and heart disease as adults.
The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has sponsored the nationwide research to find the best ways to treat the disease. The program, called Treatment Options for type 2 Diabetes in Adolescents and Youth (TODAY), recently reported that children who develop type 2 diabetes are at high risk to develop heart, kidney and eye problems faster and at a higher rate than people who acquire type 2 diabetes as adults.
Jane Lynch, MD, professor of pediatric endocrinology in the School of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, led the investigation, which followed 699 children and young people for two to six years. Ranging in age from 10 to 17, participants in the TODAY study were overweight or obese and were diagnosed as having type 2 diabetes within two years of their enrollment, which was between 2004 and 2009.
Scientists observed that more than a third of the study subjects required medication for hypertension or kidney disease about four years after they had joined the study.
The study was published online in May in Diabetes Care. The study was funded in part by a grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)/National Institutes of Health (NIH).
