Obese Latino Youth May Be At Risk for Diabetes and Heart Disease as Young Adults

Dr. Enrique Caballero, endocrinologist and director of the Latino Health Initiative, among other roles he has at the Joslin Diabetese Center in Boston, Mass. (Photo from joslin.org)

DIABETES IN LATINOS

The risk of developing diabetes is 1.5 times greater than for non-Latino white Americans.*

A Latino child born today has a 50% chance of developing diabetes in his/her lifetime.*

More than 10% of all Latinos in the U.S. have diabetes (of whom 1/3 remain undiagnosed).*

Latinos aged 50 and older have substantially higher rates of diabetes (24-30%).*

25% of Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans over 45 have diabetes.*

Mexican Americans are 1.7 times as likely to have diabetes as non-Hispanic whites.**

Puerto Rican residents are 1.8 times as likely to have diagnosed diabetes as U.S. non-Hispanic whites.**

DIABETES IN OTHER ETHNIC/RACIAL GROUPS in the USA**

Clinically-based reports and regional studies suggest that type 2 diabetes, though still rare [in children], is being diagnosed more frequently in children and teens, particularly in Native Americans, African Americans and Latinos.

WOMEN: 9.7 million, or 8.8% of all women aged 20 or older, have diabetes, but nearly 33% of them don't know it.

WOMEN: The prevalence of diabetes is at least 2 to 4 times higher among non-Hispanic Black, Latina, Native American and Asian women than among non-Hispanic white women.

NON-HISPANIC BLACKS: 3.2 million, or 13.3% of all non-Hispanic blacks aged 20 or older, have diabetes.

NON-HISPANIC BLACKS: After adjusting for population age differences, non-Hispanic blacks are 1.8 times as likely to have diabetes as non-Hispanic whites.

NATIVE AMERICANS: 118,000 (15.1%) aged 20 or older have diabetes (both diagnosed and undiagnosed).

NATIVE AMERICANS: Taking into account population age differences, Native Americans are 2.2 times as likely to have diabetes as non-Hispanic whites.

ASIANS: In Hawaii, Asians, Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders aged 20 or older are more than 2 times as likely to have diagnosed diabetes as whites after adjusting for population age differences.

ASIANS IN CALIFORNIA: were 1.5 times as likely to have diagnosed diabetes as non-Hispanic whites.

* SOURCE: Latino Health Initiative, Joslin Diabetes Center, Boston, Mass., http://www.joslin.org/3250_3259.asp

** SOURCE: American Diabetes Association (ADA), "Total Prevalence of Diabetes and Pre-Diabetes," http://diabetes.org/diabetes-statistics/prevalence.jsp

For more information in English or Spanish, contact the ADA at 1-800-DIABETES (1-800-342-2383).

Story Location

Joslin Diabetes Center

1 Joslin Place

Boston, MA, 02215

United States

See map: Google Maps

Obese Latino children and teens may be at risk for developing type 2 diabetes and heart disease at a young age, according to a study conducted at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, Mass.

The study - published in the March 2008 issue of Diabetes Care - also suggests that weight-loss strategies for Latino children and teens must be culturally tailored in order to be effective.

The research findings support what is well known in the Latino healthcare community, that Hispanic youth may be likely to have type 2 diabetes later in life, due to genetic factors but also because of lifestyle influences such as physical activity and foods eaten.

Left untreated, diabetes can lead to blindness, kidney failure, painful nerve damage, amputations of the leg (due to problems with blood circulation) and sexual dysfunction, according to the American Diabetes Association (ADA).

Residents of Puerto Rico are 1.8 times more likely to have diagnosed diabetes than U.S. non-Hispanic whites, says the ADA.

If undiagnosed Puerto Ricans are included - that is, those who have diabetes but don't know it - the number might be higher than 1.8.

In type 2 diabetes, two possibilities exist regarding the body's ability to produce or use insulin, a hormone that transports glucose (a blood sugar) to cells: either the body cannot produce enough insulin or the cells are unable to use it.

Dr. A. Enrique Caballero and colleagues conducted the small study at the Joslin Diabetes Center (JDC), which involved 38 lean or obese Hispanic children and adolescents, ages 10 to 18.

Dr. Caballero is an endocrinologist (hormone specialist), the director of the Latino Health Initiative, a Harvard Medical School assistant professor and the medical director of professional education, at the Joslin.

The researchers checked the 38 youngsters' blood for glucose levels and other indicators of diabetes and cardiovascular disease, such as inflammation or dysfunction of blood vessels.

The blood results indicated that the obese group had blood-vessel inflammation, even though they had normal glucose levels and therefore were clinically diabetes-free.

"Our findings suggest that these [obese] children are not only at risk for type 2 diabetes [which traditionally has been a disease of adults], but also for cardiovascular disease," said Dr. Caballero, in press statements from the JDC.

"Some of these children may actually end up developing not only type 2 diabetes, but also cardiovascular disease – at an early age [which] is something that we're starting to see nowadays: young individuals in their 20s or 30s with type 2 diabetes AND cardiovascular disease," Dr. Caballero said in an audio clip for MedPage Today, a news service for physicians.

According to MedPage, the parents and grandparents of most of the 38 youth were from the Dominican Republic or Puerto Rico, which each has a substantial number of former residents who now live in the Boston area.

Strategies to prevent obesity in these populations "must be culturally appropriate," said Dr. Caballero in JDC press statements.

The study does not prove that obese children will develop type 2 diabetes or heart disease as young adults.

However, it shows "a problem...serious enough to warrant attention and a prevention strategy," he said.

Dr. Caballero was not available for an interview with NEWz at press time.

The study of A. Enrique Caballero, MD, and colleagues, "Overweight Latino Children and Adolescents Have Marked Endothelial Dysfunction and Subclinical Vascular Inflammation in Association With Excess Body Fat and Insulin Resistance," is in Diabetes Care (31:576-582, 2008), a publication of the American Diabetes Association.

The study's other researchers are: Kelb Bousquet-Santos, DSc, Ludivina Robles-Osorio, MD, Valeria Montagnani, RN, Geetha Soodini, MD, Sriurai Porramatikul, MD, Osama Hamdy, MD, Antonio C.L. Nobrega, MD, DSc and Edward S. Horton, MD.

All of the researchers are with the Joslin Diabeter Center, except for Drs. Bousquet-Santos and Nobrega, who are with the Biomedical Institute, Fluminense Federal University, Niterüi, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Source: EthnicNEWz.org

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