Case of Houston child, 3, with diabetes highlights increase among children: Type 2 case here shows hazards of child obesity

Houston Chronicle, 18 September 2015

A case of a 3-year-old, 77-pound Houston girl diagnosed with type 2 diabetes underscores a disturbing trend. Decades of rising childhood obesity rates in the United States have had a shadow effect, with a parallel increase in children developing the form of the disease that has mainly affected adults.

More children are being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes at an earlier age, studies show, prompting doctors to continually reframe their thinking about how early diabetes can start. A shortage of drugs for pediatric diabetes patients, and difficulty in enrolling children in trials, compounds the problem. Read more.

Texas A&M Awarded Funding to Help Reverse Diabetes Epidemic in South Texas

Association of Schools and Programs of Pubic Health, 10%#160;September 2015

n South Texas, the human suffering and medical expenses of a third of the population living with type 2 diabetes is catastrophic. For people who have diabetes but lack medical coverage, it costs approximately $0.2 million per year for sporadic, intensive emergency room visits for dialysis during the last 3 years of life.

In hopes of reversing this trend, Dr. Ann Millard, will begin a walking group and healthy eating program led by promotoras de salud (Community Health Workers) in the colonias of Weslaco, Texas. An associate professor at the Texas A&#amp;M Health Science Center School of Public Health McAllen Campus, Millard will continue her work through a 2-year $342,000 grant awarded from the Knapp Community Care Foundation. Read more.

Prevalence of and Trends in Diabetes Among Adults in the United States, 1988-2012

JAMA, 8 September 2015

Importance Previous studies have shown increasing prevalence of diabetes in the United States. New US data are available to estimate prevalence of and trends in diabetes.

Objective To estimate the recent prevalence and update US trends in total diabetes, diagnosed diabetes, and undiagnosed diabetes using National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data. …

Conclusions and Relevance In 2011-2012, the estimated prevalence of diabetes was 12% to 14% among US adults, depending on the criteria used, with a higher prevalence among participants who were non-Hispanic black, non-Hispanic Asian, and Hispanic. Between 1988-1994 and 2011-2012, the prevalence of diabetes increased in the overall population and in all subgroups evaluated. Read more.

Association of Lipopolysaccharide-Binding Protein With Aging-Related Adiposity Change and Prediabetes Among African Ancestry Men

Diabetes Care, 30&#160December 2015

OBJECTIVE Cross-sectional studies suggest that lipopolysaccharide-binding protein (LBP) may be associated with obesity and metabolic disorders. However, prospective studies examining LBP are lacking. This prospective study investigated the association between LBP and metabolic abnormalities in 580 African ancestry men (mean age, 59.1 ± 10.5 years). …

CONCLUSIONS LBP may be a marker of prediabetes. Some of this association appears to be mediated through increased central and ectopic skeletal muscle adiposity. Read more.

Diabetes Among Asians and Native Hawaiians or other Pacific Islanders — United States, 2011–2014

MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep, 20 November 2015

Asians and Native Hawaiians or other Pacific Islanders (NHPIs) are fast-growing U.S. minority populations at high risk for type 2 diabetes. Although national studies have described diabetes prevalence, incidence, and risk factors among Asians and NHPIs compared with non-Hispanic whites, little is known about state-level diabetes prevalence among these two racial groups, or about how they differ from one another with respect to diabetes risk factors. To examine state-level prevalence of self-reported, physician-diagnosed (diagnosed) diabetes and risk factors among Asians and NHPIs aged ≥18 years, CDC analyzed data from the 2011–2014 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). Read more.

New Harlingen initiative aims to combat diabetes

ValleyCentral.com, 5 October$#160;2015

With nearly 30 percent of Rio Grande Valley residents with diabetes, the City of Harlingen has voted to create a new committee in an effort to spearhead wellness initiatives. Read more.

Comparing Type 2 Diabetes, Prediabetes, and Their Associated Risk Factors in Asian Indians in India and in the U.S.: The CARRS and MASALA Studies

Diabetes Care, July2015

OBJECTIVE To assess the prevalence of diabetes and prediabetes and the associated risk factors in two Asian Indian populations living in different environments.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We performed cross-sectional analyses, using representative samples of 2,305 Asian Indians aged 40–84 years living in Chennai, India, from the Centre for cArdiometabolic Risk Reduction in South-Asia study (CARRS) (2010–2011), and 757 Asian Indians aged 40–84 years living in the greater San Francisco and Chicago areas from the U.S. Mediators of Atherosclerosis in South Asians Living in America (MASALA) study (2010–2013). …

CONCLUSIONS These findings indicate possible changes in the relationship between migration and diabetes risk and highlight the growing burden of disease in urban India. Additionally, these results call for longitudinal studies to better identify the gene-environment-lifestyle exposures that underlie the elevated risk for type 2 diabetes development in Asian Indians. Read more.