PITTSBURGH Study finds children with double diabetes

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- A significant number of children diagnosed with type 1 diabetes suffer from characteristics of type 2 diabetes at the same time, researchers at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh have found.
Researchers found that a quarter of black children and one in 10 white children suffered from "double diabetes," according to a study published in the October issue of Diabetes Care, published by the American Diabetes Association.
The condition has been diagnosed in adults, but this is the first time children have been found to suffer from both insulin dependency and insulin resistance, doctors said. The condition can complicate diagnosis and treatment of the disease and puts children at greater risk of stroke, heart attack, blindness and nerve damage, they said.
"This study suggests risk factors and complications from type 1 might overlap into type 2, and vice versa," said Dr. Dorothy Becker, the hospital's chief of endocrinology and diabetes.
Researchers pored over data from 260 young patients diagnosed with type 1 diabetes between 1979 and 1998, half of them black and half white. A significant number of those children were obese and/or had other characteristics of type 2 diabetes.
Link
Obesity has been linked to the onset of type 2 diabetes and may also be a contributing factor in type 1 diabetes, according to a second study by the same researchers.
There has not been enough data to complete a study until now, Becker said. Obesity in children is an epidemic, and the strong showing of double diabetes cases could be a result, she said.
"Now that children are getting fatter, it's becoming clearer that it's all related," she said.
In the second study, researchers said the prevalence of being overweight at the onset of type 1 diabetes has increased from 12.6 percent to 36.8 from the 1980s to the 1990s.
Children are increasingly exposed to genetic and environmental "triggers" that can lead to obesity and possibly diabetes, said Dr. Francine Kaufman, former president of the American Diabetes Association and head of pediatric endocrinology at Children's Hospital of Los Angeles.
"We know that there is a growing number of type 2 diabetes in children, and I think it's a call to us to change our environment," Kaufman said. "Children are exposed to 20,000 media messages telling them to eat junk food. Kids are being targeted."
Future studies at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh will look at treatment options for patients who have been diagnosed with double diabetes, Becker said.
Researchers are also trying to determine whether food consumed by newborns can increase or decrease the risk of insulin-dependent diabetes.