Doctors warned last night of a rise in diabetes among teenagers because of the growing incidence of obesity.
Three girls and a boy, all severely overweight, are believed to be the first recorded cases of white children in Britain to be diagnosed with a type of diabetes usually only seen in adults over 40. There have been instances of diabetes in children from ethnic minority groups which are more prone to the disease.
The doctors warned other health professionals to ensure targeted screening of obese children from families with a history of diabetes and called for more research into the true scale of childhood diabetes. That could mean an extra bill for the NHS since there are already an estimated 1.4m sufferers in Britain, with perhaps another 1m undiagnosed.
The charity Diabetes UK estimates that the health service spends about £5.2bn a year, 9% of the 2000 NHS budget, fighting diabetes and its complications, including heart, kidney and eye disease, strokes and foot problems. Three quarters of patients have type two, the type now found in the four children identified at two centres in south west England.
Young people with the condition would be at far higher risk of developing serious vascular problems at an early age, said doctors from the Royal hospital for children, Bristol, and Southampton University hospitals NHS trust in the Archives of Disease in Childhood medical journal. The children, girls of 13, 14 and 15, and a boy of 15, were all being treated with an anti-diabetes drug and regulated diet.
The doctors said: "As far as we are aware these are the first cases of type two diabetes in children in the UK. But this phenomenon is likely to become increasingly common. It is essential that clinicians appreciate the risk of clinical and unrecognised type two diabetes associated with obesity in white children as well as those from high risk populations, as early investigation and treatment may delay the onset of complications."
As many as one in 10 children under four is obese while one in five adults is dangerously overweight, costing the NHS in England £500m a year and the economy £2bn through sickness and early deaths of which there are 31,000 a year. Adult obesity rates have tripled and those in children have doubled since 1982.
Most cases of diabetes in children are type one, a disease causing high levels of glucose in the blood. These are treated by insulin injection and diet. Type two can usually be treated by diet alone or in combination with tablets.
Food standards authorities are already trying to make the industry more cautious about advertising less healthy food options to children and the new cases of diabetes will increase the pressure on the government to take a more direct approach in trying to change lifestyles.
