Type Two Diabetes in Adolescents and Children: Trends and Risks

Abstract

Recently, we had pleasure of reading an insightful article by Wei et al. [1], focusing on young-onset type 2 diabetes mellitus. We wish to emphasize the relevance of this topic due to the number of possible complications in the future resulting directly from the increasing prevalence of diabetes in the population. Type 2 diabetes is a chronic condition characterized by sustained high blood glucose concentrations resulting from tissue insulin resistance. The data presented in the work of Wei et al. [1] illustrate an alarming trend, projecting a quadrupling in the prevalence of type 2 diabetes among children and adolescents in the US by the year 2050 [2,3]. Such rapid growth points to the crisis ahead, as well as the need for a shift in approach to the measures required to overcome this challenge worldwide.