Early Type 2 Diabetes Linked to Higher Kidney Failure, Mortality Risk

People who develop type 2 diabetes before age 20 have substantially higher rates of kidney failure and mortality by middle age than those who develop diabetes after age 20, according to a recent study by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK).

Researchers analyzed 37 years of data on a Southwestern American Indian tribe with an exceedingly high rate of type 2 diabetes. Among 1,856 participants with diabetes, 96 had developed the disease before age 20.

Researchers found that people with youth-onset diabetes were eight times more likely to have kidney failure, or end-stage renal disease (ESRD), between the ages of 25 and 34 than those diagnosed after age 20. The youth-onset group also was five times more likely to have kidney failure between the ages of 35 and 44 and four times more likely to have ESRD between the ages of 45 and 54 than those who developed diabetes later in life.

The age-sex-adjusted death rate in participants with youth-onset diabetes was more than twice as high as in those with older-onset diabetes.

Significant Findings

The results of this study are significant for other populations “because we’re seeing more people in all ethnic groups developing type 2 diabetes in youth,” according to Robert G. Nelson, M.D., Ph.D., an NIDDK reseacher.

“Those developing diabetes in youth will be confronting the complications of diabetes in midlife,” Nelson said. “At a time when most people their age are caring for children and aging parents and saving for retirement and their children’s college education, many of those with youth-onset diabetes may be needing care themselves.”

The study, “Effect of Youth-Onset Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus on Incidence of End-Stage Renal Disease and Mortality in Young and Middle-Aged Pima Indians,” was published in the July 26, 2006, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

NIH Publication No. 07–4531
November 2006