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Increasing age

T2DM can develop at any age. Typically, however, the prevalence of
this disease increases with age (Figure 6) and one reason why T2DM is
such a rapidly growing problem is the aging population. Internation-
40
ally, T2DM is most common in the 40-59 age group, but the incidence
of the disease is increasing more rapidly in adolescents and young
adults. The fact that T2DM prevalence typically increases with age is
41
probably a result of the progressive loss of β-cell function that occurs
with age, particularly in susceptible individuals who have other risk fac-
tors, e.g. poor diet, sedentary lifestyle, etc.

Figure 6. The prevalence of T1D and T2D in England.
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Ethnicity

The prevalence of T2DM around the world is heavily influenced by
race/ethnicity. For example, the incidence of T2DM in white Europeans
is relatively low compared with Asian/Pacific Islanders (Figure 7). Ex-
41
actly why there should be such variation is not fully understood, but it is
more than likely to be due to a complex interplay of factors involving
genetic and environmental elements.

Even in children, the prevalence of T2DM varies with ethnicity, as exem-
plified in Figure 8. The pattern in Figure 7 can be explained to some
42
extent by the prevalence of obesity in these ethnic groups. For exam-
ple, in children between the ages of 2 and 5 years, the prevalence
of obesity in white non-Hispanics, black non-Hispanics and Mexican
Americans was 8.6%, 8.8% and 13.1%, respectively. As children grow
43
older (adolescents 12–19 years old), the differences in the prevalence
of obesity become even more marked: 12.7% in white non-Hispanics;
23.6% in black non-Hispanics and 23.4% in Mexican Americans. 43
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