Poor Children More Likely to Develop Diabetes as Adults

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People who grow up in low-income households are more likely to develop diabetes than those who grow up in better-off homes, according to a study of adults, ages 17 to 94, in Alameda County, Calif. from 1965 through 1999.

Of the 5,913 participants, 307 developed type 2 diabetes. Of those who developed the disease, almost 65 percent lived in poor households during childhood, United Press International reported.

The findings appear in the American Journal of Public Health.

"Our study, among others, shows a strong, persistent effect of childhood socioeconomic position on the development of diabetes in adulthood, even after taking later-life socioeconomic position into account," lead author Siobhan Maty of the Portland State University School of Community Health in Oregon, said in a prepared statement, UPI reported.