The increasing incidence of diabetes means a focus on prevention is a must, the co-chair of the large SEARCH study on diabetes in youth has told ISPADAPEG2015 delegates.

Epidemiologist and Paediatrics Professor Dana Dabelea from the University of Colarado in the US opened the conference by giving delegates an update of the SEARCH for diabetes in youth study, which was published in JAMA in 2014.

She told delegates that while she was not sure she could answer the title of the Opening Plenary Session: Can we put the brakes on the drivers of diabetes? She said she hoped she could convince the audience that they should try.

So far SEARCH had shown an increasing incidence in the US of youth with type 1 and type 2 diabetes, especially among minorities, she said.

For instance from 2001 to 2009 the prevalence of type 1 diabetes increased 21 percent among children up to age 19. The prevalence of type 2 diabetes among those ages 10 to 19 rose 30 percent during the period.

Results from SEARCH had also revealed that diabetes type was increasingly difficult to define.

“With increasing obesity, youth with type 1 diabetes may be overweight or obese, causing confusion about the correct diagnosis”.

Testing for diabetes autoantibodies may therefore be needed at the first point of contact with the patient, she said.

Subclinical complications were also present at a younger age, increasing with age and diabetes duration, she told delegates.

“All these shifts suggest higher cost and a higher burden in the next twenty to thirty years so focus on primary and secondary prevention is a must,” she concluded.

You can find out more about the SEARCH for diabetes in youth study here.