By Susan Orr
Staff Writer
The University of South Carolina's
Arnold School of Public Health has received almost $5 million in federal
grant money for research on diabetes in young people.
USC researchers will continue to participate in a
general study of diabetes called SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth. It also will
begin new research on the causes of diabetes in youth, and on the link
between diabetes and depression in youth.
"One of the main motivations for studying diabetes in
youth … is that these children simply have many years of life during which
they'll be dealing with this disease," said Elizabeth Mayer-Davis, a USC
public health professor who is the principal investigator in the SEARCH
project.
USC is one of six sites nationwide to participate in
SEARCH, which aims to identify how many young people have type 1 and type 2
diabetes; examine the differences between the two types of diabetes; and
study complications and other effects of the disease.
The five-year SEARCH study, funded by the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health, is the
first of its kind to attempt a comprehensive study of diabetes in children
and youth.
It's important, Mayer-Davis said, because no one
knows for sure how many young people have diabetes, though anecdotal
evidence suggests that type 2 diabetes, once rare among children, is on the
rise.
"The data simply are not there," she said.
As part of the SEARCH study, the USC researchers are
hoping to contact as many South Carolina youth as possible who have been
diagnosed with diabetes since Jan. 1, 2002.
Participants, who must be younger than 20, will be
asked to participate in a brief physical exam, provide a blood sample and be
interviewed about their medical history and other diabetes-related
information.
Trained medical professionals will conduct the exams,
which can be done at the participant's home or in his or her doctor's
office, Mayer-Davis said.
Information will remain anonymous.
"The better we can really understand the disease
itself, the more likely we're going to be able to develop effective ways to
prevent the disease," Mayer-Davis said.
USC received $2.8 million in grant money for SEARCH.
It also received $2.1 million from the NIH for two new diabetes research
projects.
One project will investigate the risk factors for
developing type 2 diabetes in youth ages 10-19, particularly in blacks,
Hispanics and whites. Researchers from the University of Colorado and Wake
Forest University also will take part in this project.
Another study will examine the link between diabetes
and depression in young people.
Source: Hearald-Journal.
Susan Orr,
Staff Writer.
January 2003
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