Expanded screening guidelines may still miss diabetes and prediabetes in youth, study finds

A large new study of children over the course of 17 years finds that few of those who are eligible for diabetes screening end up testing positive for the disease. Scientists looked at national health survey data from 1999-2016, and found that around 11 million U.S. youth were eligible for diabetes screening in 2016 due to obesity or other risk factors for diabetes. However, only about 3.6 million children were likely screened that year because guidelines from the American Diabetes Association and American Academy of Pediatrics prior to 2018 didn't recommend screening all kids who were overweight and had at least one other risk factor for diabetes. The sensitivity and specificity of tests to identify diabetes and prediabetes cases was also low, the study found. But the test for detecting hyperglycemia in this population was sensitive, and could be used to identify high-risk youth, the authors suggest.