More US Teens Have Diabetes Than Previously Estimated

A new study reveals that more teenagers in the United States have diabetes than what is previously estimated many still don't know that they have the disease.

Previous study suggests that the prevalence of diabetes in people aged 10 to 19 years is 0.34 percent. However, a new study published in the Journal of American Medical Association revealed that the weighted prevalence of diabetes to be 0.8 percent.

For the study, the researchers randomly selected 2,606 adolescence, aging 12 to 19 years, for morning examination after fasting. Their findings revealed that among the participants 62 have diabetes and 512 have prediabetes. Of the 62 diagnosed with diabetes, 29 percent or 20 of them have no idea that they have the blood-sugar disease.

"These findings may have important public health implications because diabetes in youth is associated with early onset of risk factors and complications," the authors of the study explained in a press release. "A relatively large proportion was unaware of the condition, particularly among non-Hispanic black participants and Hispanic participants, indicating a need for improved diabetes screening among adolescents."

About 50 percent of non-Hispanic black teens in the study that were diagnosed with diabetes don't know that they have the condition, while 40 percent of the Hispanic participants have no idea they have diabetes. The prevalence of prediabetes in non-Hispanic black teens and Hispanic teen were 21 percent and 23 percent respectively.

Prediabetes is described to be the condition when the blood sugar levels are higher than usual, but not high enough to be considered as diabetes. However, people diagnosed with prediabetes have a higher risk in developing diabetes later in their life.

According to National Diabetes Education Program, about 208,000 people in the United States under the age of 20 were diagnosed to be diabetic in 2012. CDC estimated that 29.1 million people in the United States have diabetes, with about 8.1 million of them have no idea that they have diabetes.