Prediabetes Risk Doubled for Asian, Pacific Islander Teens With Overweight, Obesity

TUESDAY, July 29, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Among adolescents with overweight or obesity, prediabetes is more than twice as common in Asian and Pacific Islander (Asian/PI) adolescents than in White youth, according to a study published online June 30 in Diabetes Care.

Adrian Matias Bacong, Ph.D., M.P.H., from the Stanford University Center for Asian Health Research and Education in California, and colleagues examined prediabetes in adolescent Asian/PI subgroups. The analysis included health record data from Kaiser Permanente Northern California for 20,540 non-Hispanic White and 16,508 Asian/PI adolescents aged 10 to 17 years.

The researchers found that Asian/PI adolescents with overweight or obesity had a significantly higher prediabetes prevalence (26.9 percent) than non-Hispanic White adolescents (11.9 percent). There was variation among Asian subgroups (31.0 percent for South Asian, 32.0 percent for Native Hawaiian/PI, 28.2 percent for Filipino, 25.9 percent for Chinese, and 18.4 percent for Vietnamese adolescents). Compared with non-Hispanic White adolescents, the adjusted prevalence ratios for prediabetes were 2.80 for South Asian, 2.44 for Native Hawaiian/PI, 2.18 for Filipino, 2.18 for Chinese, and 1.68 for Vietnamese adolescents. Similar results were seen by sex, and patterns were similar within overweight or obesity subgroups.

“Prediabetes screening is essential for the high-risk population of Asian/PI adolescents with overweight or obesity,” the authors write.

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