More and more children in the United States are prescribed
medication for chronic diseases, according to a study published in the November
issue of Pediatrics. The situation is even worse than it seems at the first
look as more kids are being prescribed drugs for conditions seen primarily in
adults such as obesity-related diseases.
“We've got a lot of sick children. What we've been seeing in
adults, we're also now seeing in kids,” says author Emily Cox, senior director
of research with Express Scripts, which administers drug benefit programs for
private insurance plans.
The findings were based on insurance claims for 3.2 million
children aged 5 to 19. According to them, use of drugs for type-2 diabetes
doubled in children, while cholesterol-lowering medications rose by 15 percent
between 2002 and 2005. More exactly, six out of 10,000 children are suffering
from diabetes, a condition closely linked to obesity. That suggests that at
least 23,000 privately insured children in the US are now taking diabetes
medications, the researchers said. And the bad news doesn’t end here, as
obesity rate is on the rise both in adults and children. According to recent
statistics, one third of US children and about 17 percent obese and the future
does not look promising.
About 176,500 children and adolescents younger than 20 have
diabetes, and 2 million teenagers have blood glucose levels higher than normal,
a condition called pre-diabetes, according to the latest statistics of the
American Diabetes Association.
The study also found that girls were more than twice as
likely to be taking a diabetes medication as boys, even though girls aren’t
more likely to have the disease. Cox suggested this may be because girls visit
the doctor twice as much as boys. She also warned that unless these children
make major changes, such as eating healthier and exercising more, they could be
facing a lifetime of illness.
“These are not antibiotics that they take for seven to 10
days. These are drugs that many are taking for the rest of their lives.”
High blood pressure medications saw a more moderate
growth, 1.8 percent. High blood pressure is also closely linked to obesity.
As for other conditions, the study found that medicines
for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder increased by more than 40 percent,
while the number of asthma prescriptions was up nearly 47 percent.
There is still good news in all these troublesome
findings. The rise of prescription use indicates that more children are being
diagnosed and doctors are increasingly using medication to treat these
conditions.
“Our findings indicate that we, the doctors, are doing a better job of
screening children and diagnosing chronic conditions. A great example of this
is blood pressure, where there has been a big push to identify and treat
children in need,” said. Donna R. Halloran, M.D., MSPH, assistant professor of
pediatrics at Saint Louis University School of Medicine.
