title: Type 2 diabetes in childhood: the American perspective.
abstract: The incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus is steadily escalating throughout the world in people from a wide range of ethnic groups and all social and economic levels. Type 2 diabetes is no longer a disease only of adults: parallel with the global epidemic of type 2 diabetes in adults, an 'emerging epidemic' of type 2 diabetes has been observed in youth over the last decade. Research and clinical experience in adults have established that insulin resistance is a major risk factor for type 2 diabetes. However, insulin resistance alone is not sufficient to cause diabetes, which will develop only when insulin secretion by the beta-cells fails. This review discusses the recent emergence of type 2 diabetes in children and adolescents, its risk factors, pathophysiologic mechanisms and treatment modalities.
authors.affiliation: Division of Pediatric Endocrinology, Metabolism and Diabetes Mellitus, Children's Hospital, University of Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA.
authors.forename: Ingrid
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Libman
authors.forename: Silva
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Arslanian
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000569:Americas / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D009765:Obesity / Q000150:complications; D012307:Risk Factors