Percentage of obesity in the diagnosis of diabetes in the 20s and 30sIn the past 10 years, the number of young diabetic patients in their 20s and 30s has increased, and especially in these patients, the prevalence of high obesity has risen sharply.
A team led by Professors Dae-Jung Kim and Kyung-Hwa Ha (Students Hyun-Ho Choi, Ki-Woong Choi, and Ho-Jun Yun, College of Medicine, Ajou University Hospital) at Ajou University Hospital Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism compared and analyzed the change in the diabetes incidence rate for 10 years from 2006 to 2015 using the National Health Insurance Corporation sample cohort data. After confirming the facts, the related papers were published in the January issue of ‘DMJ (Diabetes & Metabolism Journal)’, a SCIE journal published by the Korean Diabetes Association, in ‘Rising Incidence of Diabetes in Young Adults in South Korea: A National Cohort Study’ increase: a national cohort study)”.
According to the results of this study, the incidence of diabetes in Korea decreased from 7.7 per 1,000 people in 2006 to 6.3 in 2015. This seems to be the effect of improving lifestyle habits such as increasing physical activity, healthy eating, smoking cessation, and moderate drinking in society as a whole, as well as efforts to prevent diabetes in the pre-diabetes stage (high-risk group). Another noteworthy point is that, looking at the age group, the number of middle-aged and older people after the age of 40 has decreased, while the number of young people in their 20s and 30s has increased from 1.3 per 1,000 people in 2006 to 1.7 in 2015.
According to the data of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2016-2018), the number of people suffering from diabetes is estimated to be 69,000 people in their 20s (1.0%) and 179,000 people in their 30s (2.4%).
The researchers explained that the reason for the increase in young diabetes was related to an increase in obesity.
In this study, when looking at the proportion of people with diabetes in their 20s and 30s who were diagnosed with diabetes, it increased significantly from 51.4% in 2006 to 72.4% in 2015. In particular, the rate of stage 2 obesity (body mass index 30.0-34.9 kg/m2) increased from 11.2% in 2006 to 20.4% in 2015, and the rate of stage 3 obesity (body mass index ≥ 35.0 kg/m2, severe obesity) increased from 0.0% in 2006 to 2015 increased to 10.2% per year. Diabetes mellitus (type 2) that occurs in young adults under the age of 40 is called ‘young diabetes’. Type 1 diabetes is a case in which the pancreas cannot make any insulin at all, and type 2 diabetes is insufficient or does not function properly even when insulin is produced, resulting in a high blood glucose concentration.
Professor Kim Dae-jung said, “The danger of young diabetes is that it is often accompanied by severe obesity, so it is not easy to manage blood sugar, and the risk of complications is high due to prolonged exposure to high blood sugar. Therefore, prevention is more important than anything else, and thorough management is necessary to prevent complications from diabetes after diagnosis.” Professor Kim added, “To this end, it is important to recognize that you can get diabetes even at a young age, be careful not to become severely obese, and to detect early through health checkups.”
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