The Changing Face of Diabetes in America

So much has changed in the field of diabetes diagnosis and management in the United States. Unhealthy lifestyle choices have hastened an epidemic of childhood obesity, causing a paradigm shift in how childhood diabetes is conceptualized. Once thought a consequence of obesity, sedentary lifestyle, and genetics, diabetes with onset in adults has been found to have a variant with autoimmunity. As the lines among adult-onset, child-onset, and type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus become more blurred, best practices in management and prevention become more complicated. This article highlights key points regarding 2 variants, juvenile-onset type 2 diabetes mellitus and latent autoimmune diabetes of adults.