MedWire News: Recent NHANES data estimate the prevalence of prediabetes to be about 16% in 12–19-year old US youths.

Prediabetes is characterized by an impaired fasting glucose (IFG) and/or an impaired glucose tolerance (IGT). Individuals with this metabolic disorder are at increased risk for diabetes and cardiovascular-related death.

To obtain nationally representative data of the prevalence of IFG, IGT and prediabetes in US adolescents, Chaoyang Li (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA) and colleagues analyzed data from participants aged 12–19 years in the 2005–2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).

Fasting plasma glucose and 2-hour glucose during an oral glucose tolerance test were used to assess the prevalence of IFG, IGT, and prediabetes.

In 777 adolescents examined, the unadjusted prevalences of IFG, IGT and prediabetes were 13.1%, 3.4%, and 16.1%, respectively. IFG accounted for nearly 80% of adolescents with prediabetes.

The results, reported in the journal Diabetes Care, show that the prevalence of prediabetes was 2.4-fold higher in boys than girls, 2.6-fold higher in overweight adolescents than those with normal weight, and four-fold higher in adolescents with hyperinsulinemia than those without.

There were also ethnic differences with a lower prevalence of prediabetes among non-Hispanic blacks than among non-Hispanic Whites and Mexican Americans.

“It is noteworthy that adolescents with two or more of the four cardiometabolic risk factors (ie, central obesity, high triglyceride, low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and elevated blood pressure) had a significantly higher prevalence of prediabetes than those with zero or one risk factor,” the authors write.

The authors found that hyperinsulinemia was independently associated with prediabetes and suggest that it may account for the association of overweight and clustering of cardiometabolic risk factors with prediabetes.

Prediabetes is an intermediate stage in the development of Type 2 diabetes and has been shown to be reversible through pharmacological and lifestyle interventions. The authors emphasize that early detection and appropriate management of prediabetes among adolescents could effectively prevent or delay their development of Type 2 diabetes and related complications in later life.

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