Nearly one in every three children aged at least 12 have prediabetes, or higher than normal blood sugar levels or glucose levels, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a new update.
CDC researchers analyzed 2023 results from a long-running national survey and estimated that 32.7 percent of children aged 12 to 17, or 8.4 million youth, have prediabetes.
They came up with the number by looking at kids who had higher-than-normal levels of blood sugar or glucose, without a diagnosis of diabetes.
Christopher Holliday, director of the CDC’s Division of Diabetes Translation, said in a statement to news outlets that diabetes is a significant threat to the health of young people. He also said the data should serve as “a wake-up call” and spur changes.
“Simple lifestyle changes—like healthy eating and staying active—can make a big difference in preventing or delaying type 2 diabetes,” Holliday said.
Prediabetes is a precursor to diabetes, a disease in which sugar builds up in the blood. Prediabetes is characterized by slightly elevated blood sugar levels, indicating that a person may progress to developing Type 2 diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes is a condition where the body fails to use insulin correctly, causing sugar buildup in the blood. Symptoms include frequent urination, sudden weight loss, and blurry vision. People with the condition, for which there is no cure, may be prescribed medication or insulin.
The CDC estimates that 38 million Americans have diabetes, with 90 to 95 percent of that group having Type 2 diabetes.
For the new data, the CDC used a progression method of analysis that included adjustments to account for differences in laboratory equipment and sites. That method diverges from the one used previously to estimate the prevalence of prediabetes, including a 2019 CDC estimate that about 20 percent of people aged 12 to 18 had prediabetes.
CDC researchers applied the new method to historical data and estimated that the prevalence of prediabetes among youth aged 12 to 17 was 28 percent, meaning the new data represent a 5 percent increase.
The CDC released a summary of the analysis on its website.
Some outside researchers said they were waiting for raw data to be published, including Steven Kahn, a diabetes researcher at the UW Medicine in Seattle and editor-in-chief of the journal Diabetes Care.
A CDC spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email that the findings were produced using raw data from the CDC website.
“Raw data were not included in the spotlight report, as is typical for these types of data releases on the USDSS, and given the nature of these communications, does not require a formal peer review as it is not a publication,” the spokesperson said.
“The spotlight reflects established analytic methods. A new interactive report on the US Diabetes Surveillance System (USDSS) with full data is in process and will be released soon.”
Dr. Samar Hafida, an endocrinologist and representative for the American Diabetes Association, said that the CDC’s updated estimate generally squares with what doctors are seeing—an increase in youth with obesity and elevated blood sugar levels that put them at risk for serious future health problems.
“It could be that maybe the number [is] slightly inflated, but I would hesitate to dismiss it,” she said.
It remains unclear what proportion of children with prediabetes will go on to develop the disease, noted Dr. Dana Dabelea, a researcher who studies pediatric diabetes at the University of Colorado. Blood sugar levels can rise in response to developmental changes during puberty and then resolve later, she said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.