Prevalence of diagnosed diabetes among African-American and non-Hispanic white youth, 1999.
OBJECTIVE
To document diabetes prevalence among African-American and non-Hispanic white youth in a two-county region in South Carolina.


METHODS
We conducted a population-based surveillance effort to identify case subjects aged 0-18.9 years with a physician diagnosis of diabetes residing in a two-county region in 1999. Case subjects were ascertained from hospitals, the sole office of pediatric endocrinology, and several smaller sources. Case subjects were classified according to the diagnosis made by a pediatric endocrinologist. As a completeness check, eight randomly selected physicians were queried for eligible case subjects. Capture-recapture provided an additional measure of completeness. Prevalence estimates used U.S. 2000 Census data for the two-county denominator.


RESULTS
Crude total diabetes prevalence was 1.7 cases per 1000 youth and similar between African-American and non-Hispanic white youth. Among younger youth (0-9.9 years), non-Hispanic white total prevalence was 1.1 per 1000 and African-American prevalence was 0.6 per 1000. Among older youth (10.0-18.9 years), non-Hispanic white total prevalence was 2.5 per 1000 and African-American prevalence was 3.1 per 1000. Type 2 diabetes was only confirmed among older prevalent cases. Ascertainment completeness was estimated to be 98%.


CONCLUSIONS
Our estimates suggest that total diabetes prevalence among non-Hispanic white youth is similar to rates observed over 20 years ago. Among African-American youth, the difference in prevalence noted between younger and older age-groups was notably greater than that observed among the non-Hispanic white youth, potentially reflecting a more marked increase in diabetes incidence with age.
Oeltmann
John E
JE
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina 29204, USA. je03@cdc.gov.
Liese
Angela D
AD
Heinze
Howard J
HJ
Addy
Cheryl L
CL
Mayer-Davis
Elizabeth J
EJ
D000293:Adolescent; D044383:Black People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D044469:Racial Groups; D012042:Registries; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D013022:South Carolina / Q000453:epidemiology; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001741:Black or African American