Child diabetes levels higher in China than in U.S.
Date: 11.7.2012
A study led by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found Chinese teenagers have a rate of diabetes nearly four times greater than their counterparts in the United States. The rise in the incidence of diabetes parallels increases in cardiovascular risk, researchers say, and is the result of a Chinese population that is growing increasingly overweight.
UNC-CCDC researchers followed a randomly selected sample representing 56 percent of the Chinese population in 2009 and found large increases in overweight and cardiometabolic risk factors.
The UNC-CCDC team observed rates of diabetes of 1.9 percent and pre-diabetes levels of 14.9 percent in Chinese children age 7-17. "The findings suggest a very high burden of chronic disease risk starting at a young age, with 1.7 million Chinese children ages 7-18 having diabetes and another 27.7 million considered prediabetic," Popkin said. "In addition, more than one-third of children under age 18 had high levels of at least one cardiometabolic risk factor."
