Risk Factors for Type 2 Diabetes in a Sixth-Grade Multiracial Cohort The HEALTHY study

OBJECTIVE- HEALTHY is a 3-year middle school intervention program designed to reduce risk factors for type 2 diabetes. The prevalence of diabetes risk factors at baseline in a Cohort Of 6,358 sixth-grade Students is reported. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS- Forty-two schools at seven U.S. sites were randomly assigned to intervention or control. Students participated in baseline data collection during fall of 2006. RESULTS- Overall, 49.3% of children had BMI >= 85th percentile, 16.0% had fasting blood glucose >= 100 mg/dl (<1% had lasting blood glucose >= 1.26 mg/dl), and 6.8% had fasting insulin >= 30 mu U/ml. Hispanic youth were more likely to have BMI, glucose, and insulin levels above these thresholds than blacks and whites. CONCLUSIONS- Sixth-grade students in schools with large minority populations have high levels of risk factors for type 2 diabetes, The HEALTHY intervention was designed to modify these risk Factors to reduce diabetes incidence.