The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 269 No 7215 p353
14 September 2002

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European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) (www.easd.org)

Rise in type 1 diabetes among children could be caused by increase in obesity

The increase in the number of children with type 1 diabetes may not be due to a rise in autoimmune disease but because children are getting fatter.

The assertion was made at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes meeting in Budapest earlier this month and is based on the latest results from a UK trial.

The trial involved 94 Caucasian children and evaluated the factors associated with impaired glucose tolerance in children and showed that, although there was no link between birth weight and weight at diagnosis, there was a strong link between excess weight gained since birth and weight at diagnosis.

Professor Terry Wilkin, University of Plymouth, lead investigator of the trial, maintains that the causative factors in the rise of type 1 diabetes are the same as the ones causing the rise in type 2 — poor nutrition, lack of exercise and associated weight gain.

Professor Wilkin, said: "It has been known for years that children who develop type 1 diabetes are heavier as infants that their non-diabetic peers. But this shows for the first time that onset of type 1 is accelerated by fatness."