Intervention in middle school lowers type 2 diabetes risk in kids: Study
By ANIMonday, June 28, 2010
WASHINGTON - An intervention in middle schools lowered the obesity rate in students at highest risk for type 2 diabetes, according to a new study.
Students who started out overweight or obese in sixth grade are the ones who are prone to type 2 diabetes.
Healthy Study conducted from the beginning of the sixth grade to the end of the eighth involved 4,600 students attending 42 middle schools to determine whether changes in school food services, physical education and classroom activities lower risk factors for type 2 diabetes.
“The study shows that a school-based program can help lower obesity and certain risk factors for type 2 diabetes in youth at high risk for the disease,” said Dr. Griffin P. Rodgers, director of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK).
The researchers found that intervention significantly lowered the obesity rate among children Nationally, about one-third of children are overweight or obese, but in schools participating in the study, half of students were overweight or obese in sixth grade.
The study also revealed lower blood level of insulin after an overnight fast and lowered number of students with a waist - both of which increase risk of type- 2 diabetes.
However, the two groups did not differ in mean glucose levels.
The results appear online in the New England Journal of Medicine. (ANI)
