The heterogeneity of youth at risk of prediabetes and diabetes: A latent class analysis of a United States national sample.

OBJECTIVE

Prediabetes and diabetes are complex conditions associated with interrelated factors from multiple domains, including lifestyle, health, and sociodemographic status. We aimed to identify youth subgroups with co-occurring features from these domains to inform prevention and intervention efforts.

METHODS

We analyzed data from 1278 adolescents (ages 12-17 years) from the 2011-2018 United States National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys. Prediabetes/diabetes was defined using hemoglobin A1c (≥5.7 mg/dL) and/or fasting plasma glucose (≥100 mg/dL). We applied latent class analysis of physical activity, diet quality, screen time, and body mass index (BMI) identified subgroups adjusting for sociodemographic factors. Associations between latent class membership and prediabetes/diabetes were assessed using survey-weighted logistic regression.

RESULTS

Four classes emerged: High BMI and unhealthy lifestyle (37.5 %), Healthy BMI and physically active (24.7 %), Healthy BMI and lifestyle (16.0 %), and Average BMI and lifestyle (21.8 %). Compared to youth in the High BMI and unhealthy lifestyle class, youth in the other three classes all had lower odds of prediabetes/diabetes, where the adjusted odds ratio was 0.56 (95 % CI: 0.33-0.95) for youth of the Healthy BMI and active class, 0.46 (95 % CI: 0.21-1.01) for youth in the Healthy BMI and lifestyle class, and 0.68 (95 % CI: 0.42-1.10) for youth in the Average BMI and lifestyle class.

CONCLUSIONS

The latent class analysis revealed four youth subgroups with different lifestyle, health, and sociodemographic characteristics, and youth prediabetes/diabetes status was associated with the latent class membership. The results suggest potential heterogeneous interventions over one-size-fits-all approaches to mitigate prediabetes/diabetes risk among youth.