OBESITY and diabetes have affected more young people, with many taking to social media platforms to share their symptoms of being diagnosed with diabetes at a young age.

The hashtag “diabetes beginning to drain on young people” has become one of the trending topics on Sina Weibo, which has been read more than 46 million times.

Guo Xiaohui, a senior doctor at the endocrinology department of Peking University First Hospital, said that 20 years ago, none of her diabetic patients were under 30, but nowadays, around 20% of them are under 30.

Yao Qiyuan, a senior doctor at Huashan Hospital of Fudan University’s department of obesity and hernia, said there are diabetes patients who are in middle school or even primary school in recent years, some of whom are obese and have high blood pressure.

According to a 2020 report on Chinese people’s nutrition level and chronic diseases released by the National Health Commission, around 10% of children under the age of 6 are obese, which increased to almost 20% for children aged between 6 and 17.

Xie Zhuangli, a doctor at Tongji Hospital of Tongji University’s department of endocrinology and metabolism, said that when young people suffer from chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and high blood pressure, their chances of suffering complications are significantly higher than those of older people.

For example, for diabetes, it takes, on average, five to 10 years for patients to develop complications after they are diagnosed, so young people are more likely to have complications.

These complications can cause disease in multiple organs, kidney diseases, even blindness and amputation, and will seriously affect the patient’s daily lives and bring burden to their family, she said.

Experts said the reason for the increasing number of young people who have diabetes is that they eat food with lots of oil and sugar and have an unhealthy daily schedule. Some beverage brands have become so popular among young people that many of them seldom drink water, they said.

More importantly, they lack knowledge about chronic diseases and often think that only older people suffer from such diseases, Xie said.

(China Daily)