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Updated: Jul 16, 2025

Assessment of Child Anthropometry in a Large Epidemiologic Study
Published on: February 2, 2017
Ethnicity/race, parent educational attainment, and obesity associated with prediabetes in children
Reem Ghaddar1, Erin A Hudson1, Matthew R Jeans1
1Department of Nutritional Sciences, College of Natural Sciences, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.
Insights
Prediabetes is significantly higher in Hispanic and Black children, those with obesity, and children of parents with lower education. This highlights a need for earlier screening and targeted prevention programs for vulnerable youth.
Area of Science:
- Pediatrics
- Endocrinology
- Public Health
Background:
- Type 2 diabetes risk factors disproportionately affect minority children in the US.
- The prevalence of prediabetes in young children is largely unestablished.
- Current screening guidelines for prediabetes in children are lacking.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine demographic factors associated with prediabetes in vulnerable youth.
- To investigate the prevalence of prediabetes in elementary school children in central Texas.
Main Methods:
- Cross-sectional analysis of 976 3rd-5th graders (7-12 years) from the TX Sprouts trial.
- Data collected included demographics, BMI, fasting plasma glucose (FPG), and HbA1c.
- Regression analyses assessed associations between demographics and prediabetes indicators.
Main Results:
- 26% of children had prediabetes, with rates 2.8x higher in Hispanic and 4.8x higher in Black children vs. NHW.
- Children with obesity had 1.5x higher prediabetes odds.
- Higher prediabetes odds were observed in children of parents with lower educational attainment.
Conclusions:
- Findings suggest a need for earlier prediabetes screening and tailored prevention programs for minority children, those with obesity, and children from low-education households.
- Further research in a larger, nationally representative sample is warranted.
Background/Objectives:
Obesity and other predictors of type 2 diabetes disproportionally affect Hispanic and Black children in the US compared to non-Hispanic White (NHW) children. Yet, the prevalence of prediabetes in children remains unestablished, and guidelines for screening young children are lacking. This study examined the relationships between demographic factors and prediabetes in vulnerable youth in central Texas.
Subjects/Methods:
This is a cross-sectional analysis of baseline data from 976 3rd-5th graders (7-12 years) who participated in TX Sprouts, a school-based gardening, nutrition, and cooking trial in 16 elementary schools serving mainly children from minority backgrounds and lower-income households. Measures collected included age, sex, ethnicity, free/reduced-priced school lunch (FRL) status, parent educational attainment (questionnaires), BMI from height (stadiometer) and weight (TANITA scale), and prediabetes status from fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and HbA1c. Regressions examined cross-sectional associations between demographics and FPG, HbA1c, and prediabetes.
Results:
Children were 47% male, 67% Hispanic, and 10% Black, with a mean age of 9.3 years; 71% received FRL, 50% had overweight/obesity, and 26% had prediabetes. Prediabetes rates were 2.8 and 4.8 times higher in Hispanic and Black children compared to NHW children, respectively (p ≤ 0.001), and 1.5 times higher in children with obesity versus normal BMI (p = 0.02). Children of parents with only an 8th-grade education, some high school education, or a high school degree had 3.1, 2.7, and 2.2 times higher odds of having prediabetes compared to children of college graduates, respectively (p ≤ 0.004). Analyses with FPG and HbA1c yielded similar results.
Conclusion:
These findings suggest a potential need for earlier screening, more comprehensive testing guidelines, and prevention programs tailored toward minority children, children with obesity, and children of parents with low educational attainment. Future research should explore this finding in a larger, nationally representative sample.
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