Exploring the early identification of children and young people at risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus ? Programme Development Grant

Paediatric Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a condition which is growing in prevalence in the UK. Aligned to the increase in cases, will be an increase in those who are at risk of developing the condition. Those identified as at risk can be termed pre-diabetes. Early identification has been shown to be important in effective treatment of T2D.

More recently, the government has shifted to focus on prevention rather than treatment and has acknowledgement that more needs to be spent in community, to reduce spending in hospitals. As such being able to effectively identify children and young people with pre-diabetes, will support the prevention of paediatric Type 2 diabetes. Further, by ensuring the screening mechanism is acceptable and deliverable in a community setting will ensure it is effective and usable in practice for those who need it, whilst also reducing the burden on health care services.
However, currently very little is known about paediatric type 2 diabetes and paediatric pre-diabetes, particularly in the UK. More information is needed on the potential prevalence of paediatric pre-diabetes; what the associated risk factors are; what existing services and interventions exist to support and treat paediatric pre-diabetes; how receptive at-risk communities will be to a screening process; and how these processes may differ across different locations within the UK. Therefore, this program development grant is designed to address these gaps in the current understanding.

If successful this program development grant will enhance our understanding of paediatric prediabetes and by extension T2D. This will be achieved by using existing health care data (the secure data environments) to understand the prevalence of prediabetes in children and young people and the associated risk factors, across 2 locations with elevated levels of paediatric T2D (Bradford & Bristol). We then propose to explore the feasibility and acceptability of an in-community pre-diabetes screening program within Bradford as well as understanding the existing interventions and support services which exist and how equipped they are to deal with the increase in prevalence of paediatric type 2 diabetes. In order to implement this research, a multi-site team will be needed and as such working relationships will need to be developed across the two proposed sites in addition to identifying a potential third site to come onboard for the subsequent program grant.

It is hoped this work will then lead to a program grant to continue this work.