A previously undocumented incidence of Type 2 diabetes among children in Taiwan could be proof of a worldwide trend in a disease thought to be mainly an adult problem, researchers said on Tuesday.
Type 2, as opposed to juvenile diabetes, is usually linked to being overweight, and recent reports have indicated childhood obesity is a growing health problem around the world.
A 1999 urine test screening involving more than 2.8 million Taiwanese children aged six to 18 found that more than 15,000 tested positive for diabetes.
Researchers at National Taiwan University estimated from the data that the ratio of Type 2 to juvenile diabetes was six to one.
Those with Type 2 were more obese, had higher cholesterol levels, higher blood pressure and a family history of diabetes, said the report, published in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association.
Type 2 diabetes usually develops later in life, but "a disturbing trend of increasing prevalence ... in children has been noted worldwide in recent years," the report said.
"To our knowledge, the high rate of Type 2 ... in this young population has never been noted before in Taiwan. Therefore, the results of this study will have significant public health ramifications," the authors said.
They did not describe what cultural or other changes in the country might have contributed to the problem there.
"The World Health Organization has estimated that the recent increase ... has come mainly from developing countries, especially in Asia," the study said.
Diabetes mellitus is a disorder in which the pancreas produces insufficient or no insulin, robbing the body of the hormone used to absorb glucose into cells for energy and into the liver and fat cells for storage.
Juvenile diabetes, the most severe form, usually develops between the ages of 10 and 16 when the pancreas stops producing enough insulin.
Type 2 usually develops after age 40, is related to obesity and can often be controlled by diet and weight reduction.
Causes of Type 2 diabetes are still a mystery, though fat may block the action of insulin, according to the American Diabetes Association.
Whether the Taiwanese children diagnosed with Type 2 will outgrow the problem as they move into adulthood remains to be seen, the study said.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods