Diabetes is rapidly increasing among young people under 30

Over the past 13 years, there has been a sharp increase in the number of young people under the age of 30 diagnosed with diabetes.

The National Institute of Health, under the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), announced on Tuesday that it had published the results of a clinical and epidemiological analysis of diabetes patients under the age of 30 from 2008 to 2021 in the Journal of Korea Medical Science.

While type 1 diabetes was previously more common in children and adolescents, type 2 diabetes has been rapidly increasing among adolescents and young adults worldwide in recent years. As a result, diabetes has emerged as an important public health issue among younger populations, but domestic research data remains severely lacking.

This study, which utilized claim data from 130,000 individuals from the National Health Insurance Service, is the longest-term and largest-scale study conducted in Korea to date. It was carried out by a research team led by Professor Kim Jae-hyun of the Department of Pediatrics at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, with support from the National Institute of Health.

The results showed that the incidence rate of type 2 diabetes among those under 30 years old increased by 2.2 times, from 27.6 per 100,000 people to 60.5, and the prevalence rate surged by approximately four times, from 73.3 to 270.4. During the same period, the incidence rate of type 1 diabetes remained largely unchanged; however, the prevalence rate more than doubled, increasing from 21.8 to 46.4.

By gender, type 1 diabetes was 26 percent more prevalent in women, while type 2 diabetes was 17 percent more prevalent in men. When examining the incidence rate by age group (0–5, 6–12, 13–18, and 19–29), the largest increase in 2021 compared to 2008 was observed in type 1 diabetes among those aged 0–5 and in type 2 diabetes among those aged 13–18.

An analysis of socioeconomic differences revealed that type 1 diabetes was 2.9 times more prevalent and type 2 diabetes was 3.7 times more prevalent in low-income groups compared to middle- and high-income groups.

“The prevalence of diabetes continues to increase among children and young adults, necessitating urgent national management,” said Park Hyun-young, director general of the National Institute of Health. “In particular, it is necessary to ensure health equity among socioeconomically vulnerable groups.”