Type 2 Diabetes Self-Care Challenging for Teens

“Young people with type 2 diabetes struggle to maintain healthy eating habits and to get enough exercise, with non-white teens appearing to have a particularly tough time, according to what the researchers call the most comprehensive study to date of self-care among adolescents with the disease. ‘The concern is that while they're reporting some good self-management behaviors, they're also reporting a lot of not-so-good self-management behaviors and a lot of stress and other barriers to really performing good self management,’ Dr. Russell L. Rothman of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, the study's lead author, told Reuters Health. Rothman and his colleagues surveyed 103 individuals 12 to 21 years old with type 2 diabetes. More than 80 percent said they took their recommended medications at least 75 percent of the time, 59 percent reported checking their blood glucose more than twice a day, and over 70 percent exercised twice or more every week.”


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