Poor children at higher diabetes risk

SAN ANTONIO, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- Children living in poverty have high levels of diabetes risk factors and need early detection and intervention programs, U.S. researchers said.

Researchers at the University of Texas at San Antonio and Texas A & M University studied 1,402 fourth-grade students ages 8-10 in Texas aimed to determine the prevalence of high blood glucose, obesity, low fitness and energy insufficiency levels among children from poor families.

Nearly 75 percent of the participants lived in households with less than $20,400 annual income. Eighty percent of the children were Mexican-American, 10 percent African-American, 5 percent Asian-American and 5 percent non-Hispanic white.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, found that 44 percent of the students were energy insufficient, 33 percent were obese and 7 percent had high blood glucose levels. Most of these students had marginal to unacceptable fitness levels and ate high energy-dense and low nutrient-dense foods, the study said.