More than 30 percent of American teenagers were considered prediabetic in 2023, according to recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The CDC calculated there were 8.4 million children between the ages of 12 and 17 who were labeled prediabetic — or those whose blood sugar level may be higher than normal — that year, putting them at risk of developing Type 2 diabetes or other health problems like heart disease and stroke.
That translates to 32.7 percent of the total adolescent population in the country.
The CDC relied on data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey to reach the findings. The agency asked participants if they had ever been diagnosed with diabetes and to report their fasting blood glucose or hemoglobin A1C levels.
Some diabetes experts have taken issue with the CDC’s findings since the organization only released a summary and not any raw data or a peer-reviewed study outlining how it came to its conclusion.
The CDC also changed its methodology from a 2020 prediabetes analysis without explaining why. A spokesperson for the agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill.
“For any of the national health organizations now being decimated by firings (and) layoffs, I am going to be skeptical of data updates until there is transparency and clarity on the source of the data and analysis,” Christopher Gardner, a diabetes expert at Stanford University, told The Associated Press.
The CDC’s newest findings do align with other data showing that prediabetes is becoming more common among American adolescents.
One 2022 study published in JAMA Pediatrics — which also cites the health survey data — found that about 1 in 3 American adolescents were prediabetic and the rate among those ages 12-19 more than doubled between 1999 to 2002.
From 2015 to 2018, according to the study, the rate for the condition jumped from 12 percent to 28 percent among that age group.
