Several North Texas counties have witnessed an increase in diabetes diagnoses among school-aged children, yet the reasons behind the rise remain unclear.
Spikes in the number of children under age 18 diagnosed with diabetes have been seen in Dallas, Collin, Cooke, Denton, Fannin, Grayson, and Tarrant Counties, according to a report from Children’s Health.
Between 2018 and 2022, Fannin County saw the most significant growth, going from 13 to 33 in the number of children under 18 diagnosed with or having diabetes (Type 1 or Type 2), a 153% increase. Dallas County recorded the smallest, going from 1,241 to 2,931 diagnoses for a 136% bump. Tarrant County falls somewhere in between, with a five-year growth of 143%, from 973 to 2,369 diagnoses.
On the one hand, the increase in Type 2 diabetes can be explained by the rise in childhood obesity rates, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
Statewide, an estimated 17% of children between the ages of 10 and 17 were considered obese in 2021-2022, according to the State of Childhood Obesity. Data further suggests that household income levels influenced this risk of obesity, with the lowest-income children having an obesity rate of 24.1% compared to the highest-income of 9.7%.
“These [lower income] children experience higher prevalence of socioeconomic disparities and bigger challenges,” explained Dr. Soumya Adhikari, a pediatric endocrinologist at Children’s Health in Dallas, according to the Fort Worth Report. “The reality is that high calorie, cheap, accessible foods that sometimes contribute to these risks are marketed to our children.”
On the other hand, obesity isn’t a risk factor for Type 1 diabetes, which is an autoimmune reaction. This means a complex mixture of genetics and environmental factors might be to blame, yet the exact cause of this disorder remains largely a mystery.
Some have suggested a potential link between the rising prevalence of both types of juvenile diabetes and SARS-CoV-2 infections, but more research is needed to establish causality conclusively.
For Gloria Moncrief, her daughter Monty’s Type 1 diabetes diagnosis last year came as a shock.
“The first thought when you hear diabetes is, ‘You haven’t been healthy.’ And that’s not true. Type 1 has nothing to do with how healthy you have been or haven’t been. You can’t control it,” she said, according to the Fort Worth Report.
Moncrief credited the team at Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth for helping her family surmount the challenge and all the technological devices now available on the market.
“Embracing the technology is really life-changing. … The more you learn, the easier it becomes to manage,” she said, noting that Monty wears an insulin pump and a glucose monitor.
As previously covered in The Dallas Express, a recent conference for school nurses on the topic of juvenile diabetes stressed the multifaceted aspects of its management. Healthy eating, regular physical activity, and learning emotional coping skills were highlighted as vital to ensuring diabetic children’s well-being.