Diabetes has a unique impact on the lives of adolescents and requires constant monitoring of blood sugar levels, medication and balancing the effects of food and activity. With careful management by diabetologists, nutritionists, and psychologists, and with support from parents, these young people can lead full and healthy lives. They can participate in sports and compete for jobs as effectively as those adolescents without diabetes.

The International Diabetes Federation (IDF)’s World Diabetes Day campaign focuses this year on children and adolescents with diabetes. According to IDF, children and adolescents with diabetes face a lifetime of living with a disease that poses peculiar challenges for them. These struggles include higher insulin insensitivity linked to puberty, rapid behavioural changes, increased risk of depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem.

According to IDF, globally there are 500,000 children under 15 years of age, type 1 diabetes. Of these children, more than a quarter live in South East Asia. Type 2 diabetes is increasing in children worldwide, with some as young as 8 years of age. Many of them are from ethnic groups known to be a high risk of type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is increasing rapidly in children in both developed and developing countries. The majority of children (85%) with type 2 diabetes are overweight or obese at the time of diagnosis.

Type 2 diabetes in young people severely increases the risks of complications such as heart disease at an early age. This can have serious consequences on the child’s health. IDF recommends that provisions be made to deliver the best possible care, prevent long-term complications, and promote further research in order to reach a better understanding of the condition. Type 2 diabetes in children and adolescents, (as also in adults) is due to a combination of insensitivity to insulin and relative failure of beta-cell secretion. There are a number of genetic and environmental risk factors for insensitivity to insulin and limited beta-cell reserves, including ethnicity, obesity, sedentary lifestyle, family history of type 2 diabetes, puberty, low birth weight, exposure to diabetes in the uterus, and female gender. There is ample evidence that certain ethnic groups have greater susceptibility to diabetes than others. According to IDF, "there are currently over 250 million people with diabetes; with approximately 120 million of them in the developing world. Increased urbanisation, rapid cultural and social changes, unhealthy lifestyles and behavioural patterns mean that 80% of global diabetes cases are predicted to occur in low and middle income countries."

"Diabetes is part of a larger global epidemic of non-communicable diseases. Because these diseases share many risk factors, policies that encourage healthy eating and active living will prevent not only type 2 diabetes, but also obesity, cardiovascular disease (CVD), chronic respiratory illnesses, and diet-related cancers. An integrated system can maximize disease prevention while avoiding the need to develop separate courses of action. Strategies proposed here are prioritized according to their ability to be aligned and integrated into a compreh