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A study suggesting a recent increase in type 2 diabetes in Baton Rouge children flashes another warning sign linked to the effect of the coronavirus pandemic on the health of children in Louisiana.
Type 2 diabetes cases requiring hospitalization have more than doubled in the past year – and also increased in severity – according to research presented Friday at a virtual meeting of the American Diabetes Association. Pennington Biomedical Research Center researcher Dr Daniel Hsia compared new hospitalizations of children with type 2 diabetes at Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital in Baton Rouge from March to December 2019 to the same time in 2020 .
In absolute numbers, the increase has been small. In 2020, 17 patients under the age of 18 were hospitalized at OLOL with diabetes, up from 8 in 2019. But Hsia said the increase may reflect what’s happening in Louisiana and the country as blockages kept children at home and out of organized sports and other activities.
“The numbers were very low overall, which we kind of expected – type 2 diabetes in the pediatric population is still considered fairly rare,” Hsai said. “But when the number of hospitalizations more than doubles, it definitely sends signals. It could be something happening – a microcosm of what is happening across the country. “
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Other hospitals have also reported the increase. A similar and larger study conducted in Washington, DC, comparing data from March 2020 to March 2021 with the same period the previous year found that new cases of type 2 diabetes in children increased by 182% from from 50 to 141.
Type 2 diabetes is a chronic disease in which the body becomes resistant to insulin, the hormone that allows the body to process and regulate glucose, or sugar, from food.
Obesity is considered the main risk factor, although genetics also play a role. If left unmanaged, diabetes can wreak havoc in almost any system in the body.
For children, a type 2 diagnosis can mean other health problems earlier in life. And the increase in the number of cases is just one of many worrying signals that have emerged recently that shed light on the impact on children’s health over the past year.
Children have mostly been spared the bad cases of COVID-19, but researchers are increasingly concerned about the other effects of the pandemic that have closed schools, left parents unemployed and kept children out of work. interior during closings.
About 11,000 children in Louisiana lost their health insurance last year, the biggest drop in a single year in more than a decade and an alarming reversal of years of progress. Children also suffered damage to their psychological well-being, with emergency room visits for mental health increasing by 31% for children 12 and older, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The virtual school and the blockades have led to a decline in social connections. And fewer children had access to regular school meals or physical education and sports teams.
In addition to the greater number of diabetic children arriving at OLOL, those who came were also sicker. They had an average blood sugar level of 669 in 2020 compared to 441 in 2019. Ten children met criteria for dangerous and life-threatening complications in 2020, compared to three children in 2019.
“It kind of gives you the idea that the kids were staying at home, not getting proper care, waiting to come to the hospital,” Hsai said.
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The OLOL study is only a data point and does not necessarily reflect what is happening statewide. The New Orleans Children’s Hospital has not seen a similar increase in the number of new diabetic patients, according to Dr. Stuart Chalew, pediatric endocrinologist at CHNOLA and chief of endocrinology at LSU Health New Orleans.
Chalew said more data is needed before a clear link between the pandemic and type 2 diabetes can be made. Still, he noted that the disease has exploded since he received his medical student training over 30 years ago.
In the 1980s, type 2 diabetes was called “mature” diabetes because it was considered an adult disease. When a child was diagnosed, it was enough to spark a masterful conference among medical students and professors.
“We invite the adult endocrinologist to come and talk about its rarity,” said Chalew, who estimated that the children’s hospital clinic now diagnoses about two new cases of type 2 diabetes each month. “Now we have a whole clinic for these children. “
About 12.6% of adults have type 2 diabetes in Louisiana, up from 10.8% nationally, according to the CDC. In 1997, the rate in Louisiana was 5.5%. The burden is highest in the black population, where 15.1% of adults have diabetes.
“In the last decade or so, type 2 has exploded, especially in minority groups. In our region, it’s the African American children, ”said Chalew.
In OLOL data, seven of eight children in 2019 were black, as were 16 of 17 children in 2020.
Studies have shown that black children have higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which is thought to influence the body’s use of insulin, Chalew said.
Hsai hopes to compare data from Baton Rouge hospital to that of other children’s hospitals to understand factors that could influence the prevalence of diabetes, which in the decades to come threatens to become a bigger healthcare crisis. .
“These kids with a diagnosis in their teens – 16, 17, 18 – they have kidney problems in their mid-twenties,” Hsai said. “I had a young woman who had a heart attack. She was 30 years old.
Early diagnosis of diabetes is not only troublesome; it can lead to lifelong health problems and is often accompanied by other conditions, such as high blood pressure, asthma, liver disease or cardiovascular problems.
“If you start at 14, at 34, you’ll have that for 20 years. They can be in their 30s and suffer from blindness and kidney failure, ”said Chalew. “If the number of children continues to increase and we cannot reduce it, they will become increasingly ill as they get older. It will be a health disaster. “
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