Publication, Part of National Diabetes Audit: Young People with Type 2 Diabetes
National Diabetes Audit 2021-22, Young People with Type 2 Diabetes - Detailed Analysis Report
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11 October 2024 09:00 AM
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Characteristics and trends
This section looks at the characteristics of young people with type 2 diabetes compared to older people with type 2 diabetes from 2017-18 to 2021-22.
Cohort
Table 1: Number of people with type 2 diabetes, by age group and audit year, England and Wales, 2017-18 to 2021-22
| Audit year | |||||
| Age group | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 |
| Under 40 year olds | 117,270 | 123,830 | 129,200 | 132,000 | 139,255 |
| 40 - 79 years old | 2,488,330 | 2,577,295 | 2,674,395 | 2,705,585 | 2,769,415 |
| Total | 2,605,600 | 2,701,130 | 2,803,595 | 2,837,585 | 2,908,670 |
Table 2: Number of people with type 2 diabetes, by age group and audit year, England and Wales, 2017-18 to 2021-22
| Audit year | |||||
| Age group | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 |
| <12 | 90 | 105 | 110 | 120 | 150 |
| 12-15 | 495 | 495 | 570 | 610 | 690 |
| 16-18 | 1,005 | 1,060 | 1,005 | 1,015 | 1,160 |
| 19-25 | 8,065 | 8,725 | 8,785 | 9,065 | 9,765 |
| 26-39 | 107,615 | 113,445 | 118,725 | 121,190 | 127,495 |
| 40-59 | 925,815 | 957,885 | 996,690 | 1,010,750 | 1,037,410 |
| 60-79 | 1,562,515 | 1,619,410 | 1,677,705 | 1,694,835 | 1,732,005 |
| Total | 2,605,600 | 2,701,130 | 2,803,595 | 2,837,585 | 2,908,670 |
- There were 139,255 people under the age of 40 with type 2 diabetes in 2021-22, accounting for 4.8% of all type 2 diabetes cases under the age of 80 in England and Wales.
- Between 2017-18 and 2021-22, there was a steady year-on-year increase in the number of people with type 2 diabetes across all age groups, with a total percentage increase of 11.6% from 2017-18 to 2021-22.
- However, a steeper rise was observed in those under the age of 40 with a percentage increase of 18.7% between 2017-18 and 2021-2022 compared to 11.3% in those aged between 40 and 79 years old.
Notes:
1. Totals may not sum due to disclosure control. See Additional information for more details.
Sex
- A greater proportion of people aged 19-25 years with type 2 diabetes were female (e.g. 61.3% were female in 2021-22) with equal proportions of males and females in those aged 26-39 years old (e.g. 50.8% were female in 2021-22). However, males predominated in older age groups (e.g. in 2021-22, 58.4% of 40-59 year olds and 57.3% of 60-79 years old were male).
- A similar trend was seen over time in all age groups, whereby around 60% of the cohort aged 19-25, around 50% of those aged 26-39 and around 40% of those aged 40-59 and 60-79 were females).
Notes:
1. Totals may not sum due to disclosure control. See Additional information for more details.
Ethnicity
- Young people (aged under 40 years old) with type 2 diabetes were more likely to be from Asian and mixed ethnic groups compared to older people with type 2 diabetes (in 2021-22, 29.6% of 26-39 year olds were from Asian ethnic groups and 2.1% were from mixed ethnic groups compared to 20.9% and 1.7% of 40-59 year olds respectively).
- A similar trend was seen over time in all age groups. For example, across all audit years in people with type 2 diabetes aged 26-39 years, half were from a white ethnic group, around 30% were from an Asian ethnic group and just under 7% were from a black ethnic group.
Notes:
1. Totals may not sum due to disclosure control. See Additional information for more details.
- When compared to the national England and Wales picture (2), people from Asian and black ethnic groups were over-represented in younger age groups of people with type 2 diabetes (in 2021-22 (1), 32.0% of 26-39 year olds with type 2 diabetes were from Asian ethnic groups and 7.4% were from black ethnic groups, compared to 11.9% and 4.3% of the national total in this age group respectively).
Notes:
1. People whose ethnicity was ‘Not stated/Not known’ were excluded from these calculations.
2. National England and Wales population figures based on Census 2021 data. For more information see https://census.gov.uk/.
3. Totals may not sum due to disclosure control. See Additional information for more details.
Deprivation
- Young people (aged under 40 years old) with type 2 diabetes were more likely to be from deprived areas compared to older people with type 2 diabetes (in 2021-22, 34.4% of people with type 2 diabetes aged 19-25 years old and 34.3% of those aged 26-39 years old lived in the most deprived areas compared to 29.3% and 22.3% of those aged 40-59 and 60-79 years old respectively).
- A similar trend was seen over time in all age groups, whereby around 35% of the cohort aged 19-25 and 26-39, just under 30% of those aged 40-59 and around 22% of those aged 60-79 lived in the most deprived areas.
Notes:
1. Totals may not sum due to disclosure control. See Additional information for more details.
Body mass index (BMI)
- People with type 2 diabetes aged 19-25 and 26-39 were more likely to be living with obesity, accounting for 77.3% and 74.6% respectively in 2021-22.
- A greater proportion of young people with type 2 diabetes were living with obesity compared to older people. For example, in 2021-22 77.3% of those aged 19-25 and 74.6% of those aged 26-39 years old were living with obesity compared to 67.5% and 55.0% of those aged 40-59 and 60-79 respectively.
- A lower proportion of young people with type 2 diabetes were in the overweight BMI category compared to older people. For example, in 2021-22 13.6% of those aged 19-25 and 19.2% of those aged 26-39 years old were in the overweight category compared to 25.5% and 32.6% of those aged 40-59 and 60-79 respectively.
- The proportion of people with type 2 diabetes living with obesity increased over the 5-year period; the proportions in those aged 19-25 and 26-39 rose from 73.4% and 71.7% in 2017-18 to 77.3% and 74.6% in 2021-22 respectively.
Notes:
1. People whose BMI category was unknown were excluded from these calculations. How BMI categories have been assigned differ between children (up to 18 years old) and adults. In adults, categories are assigned on BMI ranges and ethnicity group. For children, their BMI is compared to reference values for children of the same sex and similar age that took part in national surveys. See 'Care processes' under definitions in Additional information for further details.
2. Totals may not sum due to disclosure control. See Additional information for more details.
Locality of care
Diabetes is typically managed within primary care. However some people with diabetes, particularly children, may require more specialist care and be seen in secondary care by a specialist diabetes service (1).
- People with type 2 diabetes under the age of 16 were most likely to be seen by specialist diabetes services in secondary care (89.3% of under 12 year olds and 91.6% of 12-15 year olds). As age increased, young people with type 2 diabetes were more likely to be exclusively under the care of their general practice (GP); 70.1% of those aged 16-18 years old attended specialist secondary care, falling to 30.6% of 19-25 year olds.
Notes:
1. For the purpose of analysis, secondary care is defined as having a hospital diabetes clinic outpatient attendance record (i.e. identified from Hospital Episode Statistics data or by having a specialist service record in the NDA) or a record from a diabetes paediatric unit (i.e. a record in the NPDA). People seen in secondary care may have also been seen in primary care.
2. Hospital diabetes clinic outpatient attendance could not be identified for people in Wales. Therefore this analysis is limited to those in England only.
3. Totals may not sum due to disclosure control. See Additional information for more details.
Last edited: 11 October 2024 8:55 am