Children

This section is about caring for children who have diabetes:

Introduction

Two in every 1,000 young people aged 18 and under have diabetes (Diabetes UK 2007b). It is one of the most common chronic diseases in childhood. Type 1 diabetes is increasing in all age groups but particularly in children under five (Department of Health 2007c). Research based on trends emerging from an analysis of diabetes data over a period of time, is predicting a 70 per cent increase in numbers of children in Europe with Type 1 diabetes by 2020 (Diabetes UK 2009).

While the vast majority of children and young people will have Type 1 diabetes, Type 2 diabetes is being seen more in younger people as is other types of diabetes (for example insulin resistant syndromes, maturity-onset diabetes in the young and molecular/enzymatic abnormalities). Being overweight and family history of Type 2 diabetes are strongly associated with the diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes in British children. Children with Type 2 diabetes also tend to have other associated features such as visceral obesity, dyslipidemia, and hypertension which potentially increase the risks of complications (Haines et al 2007).

References

Full details of the bracketed citations in the text above and, in many cases, links to the actual documents are available in the reference list within this resource. Go to the reference list.