PERCEIVED PERSONAL RISK VS. ACTUAL RISK FOR DEVELOPING DIABETES AMONG ADOLESCENTS

Purpose: Type 2 diabetes is a growing concern in adolescents in the United States. This study wanted determine if there was an association between perceived personal risk (PPR) and the actual risk for developing diabetes among high school adolescents aged 17 - 19 years in the Dallas/ Fort Worth area. Methods: A cross sectional design with a convenience sample of 351 participants was used in this study. The data was collected using a short survey distributed to high school blood donors. A series of four questions were used to measure PPR, with the average score of these questions taken as the independent variable. A1C levels were used as a proxy for actual diabetes risk, and were obtained from the blood results after donation. Logistic regression was used to assess for confounding and determine the main association. Results: The response rate was 86%. After cleaning the data, a total of 217 observations were used for the remainder of the analysis. The average participant was a Caucasian, 17 year old, female. Family history of diabetes was found to be a confounder, and after adjusting for it, the adjusted OR was 1.226 (95% CI: 0.527 - 2.852). About 57% had a high PPR, and the prevalence of high diabetes risk (A1C level >=5.7) was 12%. Among the high A1C participants, there was no statistical significance between the high and low PPR groups with respect to age, race, gender, physical activity and sugar intake. Conclusions: These results show that there is an association between PPR and actual diabetes risk in adolescents. However, a large proportion of those who though they were at high risk were incorrect, suggesting that there may be a gap in education about diabetes risk factors in this population