Overview
- University of Chicago researcher Eric Peprah Osei analyzed nearly 2,000 participants ages 10–19 from NHANES 2021–2023 and found 30.8% were in the prediabetes range.
- Children with a waist-to-height ratio of 0.5 or higher had dramatically higher odds of prediabetes or type 2 diabetes, reported as roughly 146-fold compared with peers below that threshold.
- The study reports that waist-to-height ratio was a stronger predictor than BMI and that self-reported lifestyle and diet measures did not remain independent predictors after adjustment.
- Recent prevalence contrasts with earlier NHANES findings from 1999–2002, when about 9% of adolescents were prediabetic or had diabetes.
- The findings are being discussed alongside U.S. efforts to widen access to GLP-1 weight-loss drugs through agreements with Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, which HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. praised.