• Early onset of diabetes in adolescent and related issues: a Systematic Review
  • Zahra Tavalaee,1 Najmeh Tehranian,2,*
    1. MSc Student of Midwifery, Midwifery & Reproductive Health Department, Medicine Faculty, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
    2. PHD, Assistant Professor of Physiology, Midwifery & Reproductive Health Department, Medicine Faculty, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran


  • Introduction: Diabetes is the most common endocrine disorder in childhood and adolescence, with a significant increase in the incidence of type 1 and type 2 diabetes in children and adolescents today. Due to the great impact that this chronic disease has on family and community life, the need for accurate knowledge of its complications, prevention and treatment is well known.
  • Methods: By searching for keywords such as complication, morbidity, diabetes and adolescence, in authoritative databases PubMed, Springer, Elsevier and Google Scholar, 17 studies were obtained from 2009-2019 period and reviewed.
  • Results: Due to prolonged exposure to early-onset of diabetes in adolescents, they are at higher risk of cardiovascular disease, neuropathy, retinopathy, nephropathy, and dyslipidemia in adulthood. Diabetic adolescents with poor glycemic control and impaired lipid profile have more complications, such as retinopathy, than diabetic adults. Complications are also higher in adolescents with type 2 diabetes than in type 1 diabetes. Type 2 diabetic adolescents are said to lose approximately 15 years of remaining life expectancy on average.
  • Conclusion: The results of this study show that early onset of the diabetes at an early age and on the other hand, long-term exposure to diabetes from adolescence to adulthood increases the burden of illness and causes psycho social problems in their education, Family, nutrition that disrupt the control of diabetes and having a favorable life. This highlights the need for regular screening of adolescents with type 1 and type 2 diabetes to prevent possible complications and to timely treat occurred complications.
  • Keywords: Adolescence, Diabetes, Complication, Morbidity, T2DM, T1DM