Type 2 diabetes in childhood: building a platform to support novel intervention strategies

The rise in childhood obesity has led to children developing obesity related type 2 diabetes, something that was never seen in the UK 20 years ago. We know that these children will get serious cardiovascular disease in adulthood; but we do not know what are the best treatments to prevent or delay the onset to these diseases. This proposal is to establish a UK national cohort of children with type 2 diabetes, carefully characterised, so that they can be involed in clinical trials of treatments to improve their outcomes.

Obesity related Type 2 diabetes now occurs in children; we described the first UK cases in 2000 (Ehtisham S et al 2000) and shown that there are approximately 70 new cases a year under 17 completed years in the UK (Haines L et al 2007). There is a minimal evidence base for treatment of childhood type 2 diabetes, and children are not included in the NICE guidelines on the management of type 2 diabetes in the UK. We propose to establish a national cohort of children with type 2 diabetes. The purposes are to develop a tightly characterized cohort for intervention with clinical trials that will develop the evidence base for treatment; and to determine the natural history of type 2 diabetes in a UK population diagnosed in childhood.