Obesity fuels a 50% rise in under-25s being treated for Type 2 diabetes over the last five years

The number of youngsters being treated for Type 2 diabetes has almost doubled in five years because of the obesity epidemic, figures show.

Some 745 patients were treated in specialist paediatric diabetes clinics last year, a 47 per cent rise on the 507 cases in 2013/14.

Of the under-25s who received treatment for the condition, 85 per cent were obese and nearly half also had high blood pressure.

Unlike Type 1 diabetes, Type 2 is largely preventable and is linked to obesity and unhealthy lifestyles. It usually affects adults over 40 and until 20 years ago had never been seen in children in the UK. 

However Britain’s spiralling obesity crisis means growing numbers of young people are at risk and are being treated at specialist clinics that cater for under-25s.

One in five children are obese in Year Six, age 11, as well as almost one in ten four-year-olds when they start school. 

The number of youngsters being treated for Type 2 diabetes has almost doubled in five years because of the obesity epidemic, figures show. Some 745 patients were treated in specialist paediatric diabetes clinics last year, a 47 per cent rise on the 507 cases in 2013/14 [File photo]

Type 2 diabetes is much more aggressive in young people than in adults and can lead to heart disease, kidney damage and blindness.

Experts fear many younger patients will succumb to these in their teens or 20s because there is a higher overall risk of complications.

New data, published by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH), showed that more girls than boys received treatment for Type 2 diabetes last year. 

Nearly half of the young people had high blood pressure, and 34 per cent exceeded the higher target for blood cholesterol levels.

The true number of young people treated for Type 2 is likely to be far higher as many are solely treated in GP services, said the Local Government Association (LGA), which analysed the figures.

Unlike Type 1 diabetes, Type 2 is largely preventable and is linked to obesity and unhealthy lifestyles. It usually affects adults over 40 and until 20 years ago had never been seen in children in the UK [File photo]

Professor Russell Viner, president of the RCPCH, said: ‘Type 2 diabetes is a serious health condition associated with obesity and if left unmanaged it can lead to kidney failure, eye problems, stroke and heart disease as well as amputations. So the fact there has been a 47 per cent increase in children developing the condition is a major worry.’

The LGA said more needs to be done to reach out to certain social and ethnic minority groups and called on the Government to reverse £700million cuts to public health funding.

Ian Hudspeth, chairman of its community wellbeing board, said: ‘Childhood obesity is one of the biggest public health challenges we face and these figures are another sad indictment of how we have failed as a society to tackle it.

‘The Government’s childhood obesity plan set out bold ambitions to halve the number of obese children by 2030 but we need urgent action now.’