The prevalence of youth-onset type 2 diabetes among Indigenous patients in northern Australia is a ‘shocking’ 13-fold higher than previously thought, researchers say.

And among those with HbA1c results recorded, just one in seven had blood glucose levels within recommended targets, their study found.

The crude prevalence of youth-onset type 2 diabetes (T2DM) was 6.7 cases per 1000 Indigenous people aged under 25 — significantly higher than the previously reported estimate of 0.5 cases per 1000 people.

The numbers living with diabetes were “arguably the highest reported prevalence in any population of youth internationally within the past 25 years”, the study authors wrote in a research letter published by The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology.