Early Type 2 diabetes increases death risk

Those people developing type 2 diabetes before they are 20 end up facing higher mortality rates when they reach middle age. The findings were reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association from research carried out at the National Institutes of Health in Phoenix, Arizona .

The news follows reports that increasing rates of obesity and metabolic syndrome have prompted a climb in children and adolescents facing the development of type 2 diabetes. The researchers used data from a long study of Pima Indians, an ethnic group extremely prone to type 2 diabetes development.

End-stage renal failure appeared as a significant threat, occurring five times as much amongst young people who developed diabetes in their youth as opposed to those who developed the disease after reaching 20 years of age.

According to the researchers, the condition is serious: "The longer duration of diabetes mellitus by middle age in individuals diagnosed younger than 20 years largely accounts for these outcomes. Because youth-onset diabetes mellitus leads to substantially increased complication rates and mortality in middle age, efforts should focus on preventing or delaying the onset of diabetes."